Everyone loves fencing, right? Especially Olympic fencing, when the finest fencists (fencing term) from all over the world compete in a fence-off to see who has the best fence. This year’s competition (or should I say compe-fence-tion) has been especially fierce, with emotions running high and -- occasionally -- someone celebrating prematurely.
In Fencing, Everyone’s A Winner
Bill Hanstock is a writer, author and Emmy Award-winning producer. He began writing for SB Nation in 2011.
On Wednesday, United States fencer Dagmara Wozniak met fence-to-fence with Tunisia’s Azza Besbes in the Round of 16 in the women’s individual sabre competition. The match (?) was a thrilling back-and-forth affair, with both fencepetitors fencing their hearts out.
At one point in the match, both Wozniak and Besbes thought they had scored a point (?) on the other. They were both pretty happy about it.
It is interesting in fencing to note how each player (?) has their own individual style. Celebration style, I mean Wozniak went for the Tim Lincecum-esque fist pump-and-yell, while Besbes opted for the Dave “The Animal” Batistia “I’M FIRIN MAH MACHINE GUNS”-and-scream.
The celebration technique from both was flawless, however. Check out this sabre waggle.
Finally, a judge had to come out and explain, no, that isn’t how fencing works. You don’t both get to win. Still, they had fun while it lasted. They were in complete unison!
On this day, I think we can agree that we are all winners.
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