The men's team épée event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 30 July 2021 at the Makuhari Messe.[1] 27 fencers (9 teams of 3) from 9 nations competed.[2] The competition was won by Japan, with Russian Olympic athletes taking silver and South Korea bronze. The previous medal of Russia in men's team épée was in 1996; Japan and South Korea never medaled in this event. The 2016 champions and silver medalist, Italy and France, did not make it to the semifinals, the bronze medalist, Hungary, did not quality for the Olympics.
Background
This will be the 25th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1908 except 2012 (during the time when team events were rotated off the schedule, with only two of the three weapons for each of the men's and women's categories).
A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a team of 3 fencers in the men's team épée. These fencers also automatically qualified for the individual event.[2]
There are 8 dedicated quota spots for men's team épée. They are allocated as through the world team ranking list of 5 April 2021. The top 4 spots, regardless of geographic zone, qualify (France, Italy, Ukraine, and Switzerland). The next four spots are allocated to separate geographic zones, as long as an NOC from that zone is in the top 16. These places went to South Korea (Asia/Oceania), the United States (Americas), and ROC (Europe); no team from Africa was in the top 16, so the place was reallocated to the next-best team regardless of zone: China.[2]
Additionally, there are 8 host/invitational spots that can be spread throughout the various fencing events.[2] Japan qualified one men's épée fencer through normal individual qualification and used two host quota places to complete a men's épée team.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed many of the events for qualifying for fencing, moving the close of the rankings period back to April 5, 2021 rather than the original April 4, 2020.[2][3]
Competition format
The 2020 tournament is a single-elimination tournament, with classification matches for all places. Each match features the three fencers on each team competing in a round-robin, with 9 three-minute bouts to 5 points; the winning team is the one that reaches 45 total points first or is leading after the end of the nine bouts. Standard épée rules regarding target area, striking, and priority are used.[4][5]
Schedule
The competition is held over a single day, Friday, 30 July. The first session runs from 10 a.m. to approximately 3:20 p.m. (when all matches except the bronze and gold medal finals are expected to conclude), after which there is a break until 6:30 p.m. before the medal bouts are held.[1]
