Fencing at the 2012 Summer Olympics



The fencing competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London were held from 28 July to 5 August at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre. Ten events (six individual, four team) were contested. The International Fencing Federation (FIE) had pushed for the inclusion of two more team events, but the International Olympic Committee voted to keep the current format of ten events.

The women's individual épée semi final became a notable controversy at the 2012 Olympics when a time-keeping error by a games volunteer helped German Britta Heidemann beat South Korea's Shin A-lam. Despite there being two hundredths of a second remaining in the match, the timer could only be reset to a whole second after the mistake. The extra time was enough for the German to score a winning attack and proceed to the final.

Qualification
Qualification was primarily based on the ind. official rankings as at 2 April 2012, with further individual places available at four zonal qualifying tournaments.

Medal table
Despite fencing being its top medal-producing sport, France did not win any medal for the first time since 1960.