USA Fencing

The FIE, USA Fencing and the President and some members of the FIE Veterans Council met virtually on September 8, 2021, in order to discuss the Veteran World Championships, after the decision of the FIE Executive Committee not to hold them in October 2021 and to consider either a postponement to January 2022 or a cancellation. The final decision was to be taken by the Executive Committee on September 17, as announced by Information letter 11-21, of August 30, 2021.

During the meeting of September 8, the FIE, USA Fencing and the FIE Veterans Council reflected on the ongoing spread of COVID-19 around the world and the borders and flights restrictions, causing difficulty or inability to travel.

In addition, as participants from certain countries cannot afford to stay in quarantine from 10 to 21 days after their travel, and/or to pay such quarantine costs, these participants are not able or willing to attend. Also, because of the spread of the new variants of the virus, a number of participants and their families are not comfortable for their members to travel.

We know that veteran fencers around the world have been training for the opportunity to compete for gold and come together as a community again, and they deserve a championship with all the competitive and social facets of past successful events, such as the one in Cairo. But taking into account the fact that many countries would not be able to attend, we considered that it would not be fair to hold an event with significantly less participants.

Considering all the parameters and information available, and the unpredictability of the world situation, restrictions, and conditions to be in force in January 2022, it was felt that a postponement to January was not viable. Therefore, it was unfortunately necessary to make the decision to cancel the upcoming Veteran World Championships.

The FIE and the Veterans Council sincerely appreciate and thank the USA Fencing Federation for all the efforts to hold the Veteran World Championships this season, despite numerous challenges.