{mosimage} Gerek Meinhardt holds the early lead as the US entry for the 2008 Olympic Games. Cassara and Vanni from Italy are shut out as the qualification criteria makes the Olympics a weaker tournament than the 2007 World Championships.
There’s no chance for a country to get a medal sweep in Men’s Foil at the 2008 Olympic Games. That’s becuase unlike 4 other fencing disciplines, Men’s Foil does not have a team competition for Beijing, so there are a maximum of 2 fencers qualified per country.
That’s good if you’re #69 Carlos Rodriguez of Venezuela or #63 Kwok Kin Lau of Hong Kong, but really stinks when you’re in the top 10 in the world and from the powerhouse country in Men’s Foil (Sanzo and Vanni, Italy), or a former Gold Medalist who is fencer #3 from a European country (Guyart, France).
That’s the funny thing about the qualification for the Olympic Games. There is a hard limit of 24 athletes to compete in the Men’s Foil event, and the IOC wants to be inclusive in participation, so there are limits to the number of athletes from each Olympic region (Europe, Asia/Oceana, Africa, and the Americas.)
For Men’s Foil (and Women’s Epee), the qualification path is as follows:
Create an Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) list. The AOR includes the top 2 fencers from each country with FIE points during the qualification period. (May 1st 2007 though April 30th 2008.)
Top 8 in the world are in.
The next 8 are selected as the next 8 with zonal restrictions (max of 1 per country):
- Top 3 from Europe
- Top 2 from Asia/Oceana
- Top 2 from the Americas
- Top 1 from Africa
The final 8 slots are for countries that did not make it in the first 16. They are chosen at a continental qualifying tournament held in May, 2008. For the purposes of this article, we chose the next best ranked fencer for the zone as the qualifiers.
The zonal tournaments allow qualification for:
- 3 from Europe
- 2 from Asia/Oceana
- 2 from the Americas
- 1 from Africa
So, who is qualified right now?
Based on qualified FIE points, the following fencers would be qualified for the Olympics:
| World Rank (11/1/07) | Name | Country | Zone | In Via |
| 1 | BALDINI Andrea | ITA | EUR | Top 8 AOR |
| 3 | LE PECHOUX Erwan | FRA | EUR | Top 8 AOR |
| 8 | SANZO Salvatore | ITA | EUR | Top 8 AOR |
| 4 | JOPPICH Peter | GER | EUR | Top 8 AOR |
| 2 | KLEIBRINK Benjamin | GER | EUR | Top 8 AOR |
| 7 | OTA Yuki | JPN | AS | Top 8 AOR |
| 6 | LEI Sheng | CHN | AS | Top 8 AOR |
| 12 | OR Tomer | ISR | EUR | Top 8 AOR |
| 13 | ZHU Jun | CHN | AS | Zone |
| 18 | MEINHARDT Gerek | USA | AM | Zone |
| 14 | CHIDA Kenta | JPN | AS | Zone |
| 24 | MARCILLOUX Marcel | FRA | EUR | Zone |
| 10 | MOCEK Slawomir | POL | EUR | Zone |
| 25 | MCGUIRE Joshua | CAN | AM | Zone |
| 22 | GANEEV Renal | RUS | EUR | Zone |
| 25 | MCGUIRE Joshua | CAN | AM | Zone |
| 39 | SMANDI Mohamed | TUN | AF | Zone |
| 36 | SON Young Ki | KOR | AS | CC-AS |
| 37 | KRUSE Richard | GBR | EUR | CC-E |
| 33 | NAGATY Mostafa | EGY | AF | CC-AF |
| 42 | GOMES Joao | POR | EUR | CC-E |
| 35 | CHALIANKOV Aliaksandr | BLR | EUR | CC-E |
| 51 | SOUZA João antonio | BRA | AM | CC-AM |
| 63 | LAU Kwok Kin | HKG | AS | CC-AS |
| 69 | RODRIGUEZ Carlos Eduardo | VEN | AM | CC-AM |
The next events for qualification points are:
- Copenhagen (Jan 6th)
- Paris (Grand Prix, Jan 26th)
- La Coruna (Feb 3rd)
- Venice (Feb 16th)
- Bonn (Mar 2nd)
- St. Petersburg (March 8th)
- Espinho (March 16th)
Editors Note: The point totals were incorrect in the original article, resulting in the switching of Sanzo and Cassara in our qualification rankings.
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