The World Fencing Championships (also known as Senior Fencing World Championships) is an annual competition in fencing organized by the International Fencing Federation. Contestants may participate in foil, épée, and sabre events.

History The FIE first organized an international fencing championship in Paris, France in 1921. The competition in its early years was named the European Championships (Championnats d'Europe), and the initial participants were members of the fencing federations of the FIE. In 1921, the only event was men's épée individual. In 1922 and 1923, men's sabre individual was also held. In 1925, only men's sabre individual was held. Since 1926, men's individual events have been held in all three weapons: épée, foil, and sabre. In 1929, women's foil was added to the program as well as a men's foil team event. Men's épée and sabre teams were added in 1930 and women's foil team in 1932. Women's épée individual and team events were added in 1988, and women's sabre individual and team in 1999.

After the 1936 Olympics, the government of Benito Mussolini in Italy offered national recognition and privileges to winners of Olympic or world titles, but not European titles. The Italian fencing federation requested that the FIE change the name of the European Championships to World Championships (Championnats du Monde). The FIE approved this request and gave retroactive World Championship status to the previous European Championships.

Since 1921, the FIE championships have occurred annually except for an interruption forced by World War II from 1939 to 1946, and in some of the years when the Summer Olympics are held. The fencing competitions at the Summer Olympics have served as the World Championships of the year for the relevant events. Since 1932, World Championships have been held during the Olympic years only for those events not being held during that year's Summer Olympics. For the years 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, and 1956, World Championships were held only in Women's Foil Team since that event was not on the Olympic program during those years. After this event was added to the Olympic program beginning with the 1960 Olympics, the FIE stopped holding World Championships during the Olympic years until 1988 when women's épée individual and women's épée team events were added to the World Championship program, but the IOC declined to add these events to the Olympic program. A World Championship in these two events was again held in 1992 for the same reason. Finally, in 1996 the IOC added these two events to the Olympic program, and the FIE again stopped holding a World Championship in an Olympic year.

When the FIE added women's sabre to the World Championships in 1999, the IOC refused to add these two events to the 2000 Olympic program and so the FIE held a World Championships in only women's sabre in 2000. For the 2004 Olympics, the IOC allowed women's sabre to be contested at the Olympics but only under the condition that the number of fencing events being contested (individual and team) remain at ten. The FIE reluctantly agreed to this condition, and has satisfied it by not contesting two of the team events at the Olympics but holding World Championships for them instead during those years. So World Championships have been held but Olympic events have not been held (2004–16) for the following events: 2004 – women's foil team, women's sabre team 2008 – men's foil team, women's épée team 2012 – men's épée team, women's sabre team 2016 – men's sabre team, women's foil team

From 2020 Summer Olympics, all 12 fencing events were held, which means no World Championships are held on Olympic years.Fencing To Have Full Medal Count in Tokyo 2020 Olympics fencing.net

Naming These World Fencing Championships are usually referred to as Senior World Fencing Championships because the FIE also runs three other World Championships. Beginning in 1950, the FIE also sanctioned an annual competitions which it originally called the Junior World Criterium (Criterium Mondial des Jeunes). Entries were originally restricted to those 21 years of age or lower, but in 1960 the age limit was dropped to 20. In 1964, the name of the competition was officially changed to Junior World Championships, and world championship status was retroactively granted to the participants of the previous competitions.

Beginning in 1987, the FIE began sanctioning an annual competition called the Cadet World Championships. Entries were restricted to those 17 years of age or lower. Originally the Junior and Cadet World Championships were held in different cities on different dates, but beginning in 1993 they've been called the Junior/Cadet World Championships and have been held at the same venue with all of the cadet events held first followed by all of the junior events.

Beginning in 1997, the FIE began sanctioning an annual competition called the Veteran World Championships. Entries were restricted to those 40 years of age or older the first year, and 50 years or older in subsequent years.

Editions EditionYearHost CityCountryEventsInternational Fencing Championships1 1921 Paris 12 1922 ParisOstend 113 1923 The Hague 24 1925 Ostend 15 1926 BudapestOstend 216 1927 Vichy 37 1929 Naples 58 1930 Liège 79 1931 Vienna 710 1932 Copenhagen 111 1933 Budapest 812 1934 Warsaw 813 1935 Lausanne 814 1936 San Remo 1World Fencing Championships1 1937 Paris 82 1938 Piešťany 73 1947 Lisbon 84 1948 The Hague 15 1949 Cairo 76 1950 Monte Carlo 87 1951 Stockholm 88 1952 Copenhagen 19 1953 Brussels 810 1954 Luxembourg 811 1955 Rome 812 1956 London 113 1957 Paris 814 1958 Philadelphia 815 1959 Budapest 816 1961 Turin 817 1962 Buenos Aires 818 1963 Gdańsk 819 1965 Paris 820 1966 Moscow 821 1967 Montreal 822 1969 Havana 823 1970 Ankara 824 1971 Vienna 825 1973 Gothenburg 826 1974 Grenoble 827 1975 Budapest 8EditionYearHost CityCountryEvents28 1977 Buenos Aires 829 1978 Hamburg 830 1979 Melbourne 831 1981 Clermont-Ferrand 832 1982 Rome 833 1983 Vienna 834 1985 Barcelona 835 1986 Sofia 836 1987 Lausanne 837 1988 Orléans 238 1989 Denver 1039 1990 Lyon 1040 1991 Budapest 1041 1992 Havana 242 1993 Essen 1043 1994 Athens 1044 1995 The Hague 1045 1997 Cape Town 1046 1998 La Chaux-de-Fonds 1047 1999 Seoul 1248 2000 Budapest 249 2001 Nîmes 1250 2002 Lisbon 1251 2003 Havana 1252 2004 New York City 253 2005 Leipzig 1254 2006 Turin 1255 2007 Saint Petersburg 1256 2008 Beijing 257 2009 Antalya 1258 2010 Paris 1259 2011 Catania 1260 2012 Kyiv 261 2013 Budapest 1262 2014 Kazan 1263 2015 Moscow 1264 2016 Rio de Janeiro 265 2017 Leipzig 1266 2018 Wuxi 1267 2019 Budapest 1268 2022 Cairo 1269 2023 Milan 1270 2025 Tbilisi 1271 2026 Hong Kong 1272 2027 Tashkent 12

Hosting tally Hosting nations 1921–2026 Times hosted Host country 12 8 , 5 3 , , , , , , 2 , , , , , , , 1 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Medal table This table has been last updated after the 2026 World Fencing Championships. This counts the medals from the World Championships since 1921, and does not include the results of the fencing competitions at the Summer Olympics.

World champions Épée Year Men's individual Women's individual Men's team Women's team 1921 Lucien Gaudin 1922 Raoul Heide 1923 Wouter Brouwer 1926 Georges Tainturier 1927 Georges Buchard 1929 Philippe Cattiau 1930 Philippe Cattiau 1931 Georges Buchard 1933 Georges Buchard 1934 Pál Dunay 1935 Hans Drakenberg 1937 Bernard Schmetz 1938 Michel Pécheux 1939–1946 did not take place due to World War II 1947 Édouard Artigas 1949 Dario Mangiarotti 1950 Mogens Lüchow 1951 Edoardo Mangiarotti 1953 József Sákovics 1954 Edoardo Mangiarotti 1955 Giorgio Anglesio 1957 Armand Mouyal 1958 Bill Hoskyns 1959 Bruno Habārovs 1961 Jack Guittet 1962 István Kausz 1963 Roland Losert 1965 Zoltán Nemere 1966 Aleksey Nikanchikov 1967 Aleksey Nikanchikov 1969 Bohdan Andrzejewski 1970 Aleksey Nikanchikov 1971 Grigory Kriss 1973 Rolf Edling 1974 Rolf Edling 1975 Alexander Pusch 1977 Johan Harmenberg 1978 Alexander Pusch 1979 Philippe Riboud 1981 Zoltán Székely 1982 Jenő Pap 1983 Elmar Borrmann 1985 Philippe Boisse 1986 Philippe Riboud 1987 Volker Fischer 1988event not held Brigitte Benonevent not held 1989 Manuel Pereira Anja Straub 1990 Thomas Gerull Taymi Chappé 1991 Andrey Shuvalov Mariann Horváth 1992event not held Mariann Horváthevent not held 1993 Pavel Kolobkov Oksana Jermakova 1994 Pavel Kolobkov Laura Chiesa 1995 Éric Srecki Joanna Jakimiuk 1997 Éric Srecki Mirayda García 1998 Hugues Obry Laura Flessel-Colovic 1999 Arnd Schmitt Laura Flessel-Colovic 2001 Paolo Milanoli Claudia Bokel 2002 Pavel Kolobkov Hyun Hee 2003 Fabrice Jeannet Natalia Konrad 2005 Pavel Kolobkov Danuta Dmowska 2006 Wang Lei Tímea Nagy 2007 Krisztián Kulcsár Britta Heidemann 2008events not held 2009 Anton Avdeyev Lyubov Shutova 2010 Nikolai Novosjolov Maureen Nisima 2011 Paolo Pizzo Li Na 2012events not held event not held 2013 Nikolai Novosjolov Julia Beljajeva 2014 Ulrich Robeiri Rossella Fiamingo 2015 Géza Imre Rossella Fiamingo 2017 Paolo Pizzo Tatyana Gudkova 2018 Yannick Borel Mara Navarria 2019 Gergely Siklósi Nathalie Moellhausen 2022 Romain Cannone Song Se-ra 2023 Máté Tamás Koch Marie-Florence Candassamy 2025 Koki Kano Vlada Kharkova 2026 Lucas Malcotti Song Se-ra

Foil