Fencing is a niche but fundamental sport in the Olympics, competing at every Summer Olympics since 1896. bump opponents — but the sport has long been rife with drama and suspicion.
With two months to go until the Paris Olympics, international fencing is mired in questions about the impartiality of referees, accusations of preferential treatment and concerns from top athletes and coaches that the sport’s intricate connections could help decide who can participate Olympic Games.
USA Fencing recently suspended two international referees after they admitted to communicating with each other at an Olympic qualifying event in California. It has grown increasingly concerned about the other two referees to the point of asking the sport’s global governing body to ensure the two officials are no longer assigned to any games involving Americans.
Just last week, more than a half-dozen elite fencers called for tougher penalties and urgent action to protect a sport they say is “vulnerable to unfair refereeing and match-fixing”.
Andrew Mackiewicz, a 28-year-old American fencer competing in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, said, “I feel like I’ve always thought this sport is based on honor, integrity and dedication, which is really stupid.”
“That’s not the case,” he added. “It was like a mirage.” He said he quit the sport in February over concerns about unethical officiating.
judgment
While fencing relies on electronic scoring, referees parse complex offensive rules in each game and decide whether a score or touch is valid. These rules introduce subjectivity into scoring, and fencing, one of the sport’s three major disciplines along with epee and foil, can be particularly challenging because of its explosive dashes between athletes, Hitting the ball almost simultaneously.
Longtime fencing coach Yury Gelman of New York’s St. John’s University, who will coach in his seventh Olympics in Paris, said subjectivity “creates a lot of room for corruption,” while This is difficult to prove. In an interview, Mr. Gelman expressed frustration that little had been done to address fencing’s problems.
Referees Jacob Morales and Brandon Romo, who were suspended by USA Fencing last month, have been banned from refereeing at championships overseen by the federation for nine months. They deny any fixing of the match. The investigation into their conduct began after top U.S. saber athlete Tatiana Nazlymov, 19, appeared to have an exchange during a match at an Olympic qualifying event in January. of.
USA Fencing originally sought a 10-year ban for both men, but ultimately decided to reduce the punishment after a disciplinary panel report reviewed by The New York Times found “inappropriate conduct” but no credible evidence to support collusion or otherwise. Manipulative behavior.
However, they are not the only referees who have drawn the attention of U.S. Soccer Federation. A few months ago, USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews wrote to the International Fencing Federation, the sport’s global governing body, expressing disapproval of Nazlimov and another competitor. There are concerns about “possible improper refereeing”.
In a letter sent on Dec. 3 and reviewed by The Times, USA Fencing said it was concerned about two referees: Vasil Milenchev of Bulgaria and Yevgeny Milenchev of Kazakhstan. Yevgeniy Dyaokokin. The letter stated that video evidence showed that the referees’ decisions in games involving Saron and Nazlimov showed “possible favoritism” against them.
As a result, USA Fencing requested that Mr. Milenchev and Mr. Diakkin no longer participate in any competitions for U.S. fencers. Mr Andrews said he was aware that the International Fencing Federation had responded to the letter and conducted an investigation, but was not aware of the outcome.
The International Fencing Federation did not respond to a request for comment, but two referees continued to officiate matches involving U.S. fencers. Attempts to contact Mr. Milenchev and Mr. Dyaokokin through the International Federation were unsuccessful.
In a second letter from USA Fencing to Ms Nazlimov and Mr Salon on December 18, Mr Andrews told the athletes that USA Fencing was aware of “potentially preferential treatment of referees” who were benefiting. their performance in international competitions and warned them that if “strong evidence” of match-fixing emerged, they could be stripped of some of the points they had accumulated to qualify for the Olympics.
Ms. Nazlimov and Mr. Salon were subsequently named to the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics. By March, USA Fencing’s concerns seemed to have eased. Salon acknowledged through a spokesman that he received a text message on March 6 from a federation official, reviewed by The Times, saying he had nothing to worry about.
Andrews said in an interview that there was no evidence that the fencers knew about or deliberately took advantage of improper refereeing. The federation said in late April that preliminary results of an independent investigation into match-fixing in fencing found “no evidence that individual U.S. fencers were actively involved in fixing their own matches.”
Ms Nazlimov did not respond to a request for comment. But her mother, Wang Zheng, wrote in an email, “Tatiana is absolutely innocent and the accusations of cheating/manipulating matches are ridiculous.”
Connect network
The latest flashpoint came in early January, when Nazremov competed in the North American Cup in San Jose, California.
With the score tied at 12-12, Mr. Romo began asking Mr. Morales for his opinion before rating either fencer, which Mr. Morales acknowledged by hand gestures, according to the U.S. Fencing disciplinary panel. respond. This exchange violates the rules of fencing.
Howard Jacobs, a California lawyer representing Mr. Morales, the more experienced referee, said his client had only confirmed the decision the less experienced Mr. Romo planned to make and that it had not changed as a result of their communication. Any decision. Mr. Romo reportedly said he was simply seeking confirmation that he intended to make the call.
Video posted online showed Mr Morales giving the signal and also showed Ms Nazlimov’s coach sitting near Mr Morales and talking to him at one point during the game. USA Fencing said neither judge had objections to the film.
Jacobs said that according to testimony at the hearing, coach Fikrat Valiyev asked Mr. Morales who Mr. Romo was and another question unrelated to the game, but the two did not discuss any of the calls. . Ms. Nazlimov narrowly won the match 15-14.
Andrews, CEO of the U.S. Fencing Association, said, “There is no evidence that Tatiana herself was at fault in the referee dispute.”
Ms Nazremov is a member of one of the most famous families in fencing. Her grandfather, Vladimir Nazremov, won three Olympic gold medals in the team saber competition on behalf of the former Soviet Union, and her father, Vitaly Nazremov, is a former NCAA individual champion.
Her coach, Mr. Valiyev, is a two-time Olympic saber athlete from Azerbaijan, but he also embodies the complex relationships that exist in elite fencing. In addition to being the head coach of the Lady Nazlimovs, he also works at the Nazlimov Family Fencing Academy in Maryland and serves as an international referee at the Olympic level.
Nazlimov’s mother, Ms. Wang, said in an email that her daughter was in a “doctored” video released in January by U.S. coach and former elite fencer Andrew Fischl. Unfairly accused.
Fischer, who frequently posts fencing videos, said he obtained two raw videos from the January fight and zoomed in on the action without changing the order of any moves, distorting any events or making any accusations. “I just showed what happened and I thought it was strange and inappropriate,” Mr Fischer said.
Valiev has not been accused of any wrongdoing and said in an email that he never attempted to fix the match. But in other videos posted online, he is credited with being a coach and referee at the same events, as well as being an Uzbek fencer while Vladimir Nazremov was coaching the Uzbek national team or individual Uzbek athletes. The referees of the games were scrutinized because the videos could present a conflict of interest.
In response to an email from Vitaly Nazlimov, Valiyev said he acted within the rules. But both coaches admit that “the world of fencing is small and conflicts are everywhere.”
Eli Dershwitz, 28, the 2023 world saber champion of the United States, said that while violations in fencing “always” exist, he believes in the integrity of the sport and his Olympic teammates. “If I thought something was clearly wrong, I would say something,” Mr. Dershwitz said.
