Based on sword fighting, fencing demands speed, anticipation, reflexes and great mental strength.
While the activity has its roots in Europe, China and the United States have enjoyed success at recent Games while Ruben Limardo won the second Olympic gold medal in Venezuela's history at London 2012.
What is fencing?
Evidence of sword fights goes back as far as Ancient Egypt in 1190 BC with bouts and duels continuing until the 18th century.
Fencing was originally a form of military training and started to evolve into a sport in the 14th or 15th century in both Germany and Italy.
German fencing masters organised the first guilds, the most notable being the Marxbrueder of Frankfurt in 1478.
The sport's popularity increased in the 17th and 18th centuries due to the invention of a weapon with a flattened tip known as the foil, a set of rules governing the target area, and a wire-mesh mask.
One of the trailblazers of fencing as a sport was Italian Domenico Angelo who taught aristocratic Britons the art of swordsmanship at his academy in Soho, London in the second half of the 18th century.
Angelo's book 'L'Ecole des armes' ('The School of Fencing') laid down the fundamentals of posture and footwork which live on to this day.
The sport also grew in popularity in France, with Camille Prevost assembling the first basic conventions, although London hosted the first formal fencing competition at the inaugural Grand Military Tournament and Assault at Arms in 1880.
The Amateur Gymnastic and Fencing Association (now British Gymnastics) drew up official regulations in 1896, the same year as the sport appeared at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens.
