USA Fencing

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — For foil fencers hoping to secure their spot at the Olympic Games, the road to Paris makes its final stop in Washington, D.C.

USA Fencing is delighted to announce the location for the 2024 FIE Foil Grand Prix, kindly supported by Absolute Fencing. We were awarded hosting rights for this tournament in May and have been working to secure the perfect location ever since. 

The prestigious tournament will take place from March 15 to 17, 2024, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, right in the heart of Washington, D.C., and just blocks away from the iconic National Mall and the U.S. Capitol.

For young fencers in the U.S., the news gets even better: The Grand Prix will be held in conjunction with a Super Junior & Cadet Circuit (SJCC) tournament, giving juniors (20 and under) and cadets (17 and under) in all three weapons (epee, foil, saber) an opportunity to compete in the exact same venue as the world’s best foil fencers.

The choice of D.C. is a direct response to feedback from fencing fans all across the East Coast. They told us they want more tournaments in major eastern markets, and we’re working to deliver — while not forgetting about amazing fencing communities from coast to coast!

Importantly, USA Fencing would like to thank Sunil & Gabrielle Sabharwal, Phil Sbarbaro, Maura Malloy Grant and Gary Lu for their proactive local support in bringing this event to D.C.

The Grand Prix features individual competition for both women's foil and men's foil, offering these athletes a perfectly timed opportunity to strengthen their qualifying positions for the Olympic Games — and, for Team USA, to do so on home soil, in front of a pro-U.S. crowd.

For the Team USA men, the D.C. Grand Prix is the final international tournament in the Olympic selection window, and it'll be followed a month later by the final domestic tournament in that window (the April NAC in Salt Lake City).

For the Team USA women, the D.C. Grand Prix in March and Poznan World Cup in April are the final two international tournaments for Olympic selection. Just like for the men, that's followed by the final domestic tournament in the window (the April NAC in Salt Lake City).

Hosting this tournament marks a significant milestone for USA Fencing, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the FIE Grand Prix in Anaheim, Calif., originally scheduled for March 13-15, 2020. It’s our first FIE senior-level tournament since the Anaheim Foil Grand Prix in March 2019. 

"The return of the FIE Foil Grand Prix to the U.S. is the culmination of a four-year journey, and it’s a testament to the resilience and passion of the American fencing community," says USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews. "We are excited to showcase the world's best women's and men's foil fencers right in the heart of the nation's capital."

The FIE Foil Grand Prix in Washington, D.C., joins a robust lineup of international fencing events in the United States and is the latest in a string of U.S.-hosted tournaments. This includes the IWAS World Cup in Loudoun County, Va., in January 2023; the Veteran Fencing World Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla., in October 2023; and a Junior Men's Saber World Cup in Boston in January 2024.