Olympic Qualification Update: Teams Preseason

April marks the beginning of the qualification period for the 2012 Olympic Games.

At the 2012 Olympic Games, a total of 212 fencers will compete across 10 fencing disciplines.  There will be 6 individual events and 4 team events.  Today we’ll be looking at how things stand for the team event qualifications.

Please refer to our prior article for a review of how teams and individuals qualify for the Olympic fencing events.

8 teams will compete in the following fencing disciplines at the Beijing Olympics: Men’s and Women’s Foil, Women’s Epee, and Men’s Sabre. The teams qualify being in the top 4 in the world rankings as of April 1st 2012 and then the next 4 slots go to the next highest ranked team in each of the Olympic regions (Americas, Europe, Asia/Oceana, Africa.)

The practical upshot is that some very good European teams will not be able to compete in the Olympics and a few bad teams will be in for the sake of geographic representation.

Summary: Top 4 Teams followed by the Top remaining team in each region.  (As host, Great Britain has the option of entering a team for one of the events if they are not already qualified.)

Who’s projected to be in?

During the qualification period, the team events are hotly contested and the point standings could shake up a good bit as the various countries settle in on fencing their starters rather than give their developing fencers team bout experience.  We’re taking today’s FIE rankings (April 20th, 2011) and using that to show what countries would be qualified based on the current world rankings.

As each tournament is held from April, 2011 through March, 2012, we’ll update the standings to show which teams have the lead in actual accumulated points vs. the existing world rankings.  (For those familiar with the USA Fencing points process, this would be the Team Qual points vs. the Rolling Points standings.)

Today we’re focused on just the teams.  We’ll get to the individual events in another piece.

Men’s Foil

US Outlook:  The US team sits comfortably at the top of the Americas zone.  Team USA is the 7th ranked team in the world right now.

Qualification table – Men’s Foil (as of April 21, 2011)

We’re expecting Great Britain to use their host slot to get the men’s foil team into the event.  They’ve had success over the past season and would be the best shot at a medal for the host country.  Last out: Germany.  The 8th ranked German team ties with the US with 222 points, but would miss out on Olympic qualification because France, at #5, takes up the European slot.

This event could showcase 3 Asian teams, which the FIE would like in order to point towards more world participation in what is traditionally a Euro-centric sport.

Remaining competitions of the 2011 season:

Only the team points earned after April 1, 2011 count towards Olympic selection.  The first team event of this cycle will be May 22nd in Seoul, South Korea.  The Seoul event is followed by an event in Cuba in June.  Zonal events follow in July and August and then the 2011 World Championships in October.

The 2012 season has not been set yet, but there should be 3 more events in 2012 that count towards Olympic selection.

Women’s Foil

Italy sits well ahead of all other nations on the points list.  Finishing no lower than 2nd in any 2010 season event plus winning the 2010 world championship shows that they are the team to beat.

The European powers will be fighting it out for the 5th slot as France right now is 7th in the world rankings and Hungary is 9th.  Japan, at 10th, is just 8 points behind China so there could be a fight for the slot in Asia as well.  The United States is ahead of Canada’s 173 points.

Team USA will have to take care of business and make sure it finishes ahead of Canada in the first few events to cement their seed.

Remaining competitions of the 2011 season:

The women’s foil circuit will travel to Shanghai in May, St. Petersburg, Russia in June, off to zonal events in July/August followed by the 2011 World Championships in October.  2012 has not yet been set but there should be another event in February followed by two in March to wrap up the qualifying period.

Women’s Epee

The United States is 7th in the world with 185 points, but Canada is knocking on the door at 14th and 166 points.  The Pan American event this July will be very important to solidifying the US bid.

Remaining competitions of the 2011 season:

Women’s epeeists will travel to 2016 Olympic host Brazil in May, and Australia in June.  The zonal events follow in July/August and the 2011 World Championships in October.  2012 is projected to have 3 more events in February and March.

Men’s Sabre

The USA is ranked 7th in the world vs. Canada at 12th.  The US needs to hold seed and go for a couple of upsets of the European teams they’ll be facing in FIE competition and defeat Canada at the Pan American zonal event.

Qualification table – Men’s Sabre

Remaining Events:

Men’s Sabre fencers will spend the next two events in Europe, traveling to Athens, Greece on April 30th, then Madird, Spain for a May 15th competition.  June marks a home date for the US with the New York World Cup.  July/August are the zonal events followed by the world championships in October.  The traditional sabre schedule would have the 2012 events as one each in February and March.