World Fencing Championships

The FIE first organized an international fencing championship in Paris 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.[1] 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 (2004–2016) 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 are held, which means no World Championships are held on Olympic years.[2]

Hosting nations 1921–2021

Times hosted	Host country
12	France
8	Hungary
7	Italy
5	Belgium
3	Austria,  Cuba,  Germany,  Netherlands,  Russia,   Switzerland,  United States
2	Argentina,  China,  Denmark,  Egypt,  Poland,  Portugal,  Sweden,  Turkey
1	Australia,  Brazil,  Bulgaria,  Canada,  Czechoslovakia,  Great Britain,  Greece,  Luxembourg,  Monaco,  South Africa,  South Korea,  Soviet Union,  Spain,  Ukraine,  West Germany

This table has been last updated after the 2019 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.

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Italy	116	104	133	353
2	France	92	93	94	279
3	Soviet Union	92	54	47	193
4	Hungary	91	86	94	271
5	Russia	56	32	36	124
6	West Germany	25	26	16	67
7	Germany	22	34	45	101
8	Poland	17	29	41	87
9	Romania	13	22	30	65
10	Ukraine	12	12	19	43
11	United States	11	13	14	38
12	China	8	19	16	43
13	South Korea	8	11	25	44
14	Sweden	7	15	21	43
15	Cuba	6	5	9	20
16	Estonia	5	6	6	17
17	Denmark	5	3	4	12
18	Austria	4	4	9	17
19	Great Britain	3	6	9	18
20	Netherlands	3	3	6	12
21	Switzerland	2	9	13	24
22	Belgium	2	4	10	16
23	Spain	2	2	6	10
24	Azerbaijan	2	1	4	7
25	Bulgaria	1	3	4	8
26	Czechoslovakia	1	3	1	5
27	Japan	1	1	4	6
28	Norway	1	0	1	2
29	Brazil	1	0	0	1
30	Venezuela	0	2	0	2
31	Tunisia	0	1	3	4
32	Belarus	0	1	2	3
	Canada	0	1	2	3
	East Germany	0	1	2	3
35	Portugal	0	1	0	1
36	Egypt	0	0	7	7
37	CIS	0	0	1	1
	Colombia	0	0	1	1
	Finland	0	0	1	1
	Greece	0	0	1	1
	Hong Kong	0	0	1	1
	Iran	0	0	1	1
Totals (42 nations)		609	607	739	1955

Boldface denotes active fencers and highest medal count among all fencers (including these who not included in these tables) per type. The numbers in brackets denotes number of medals earned at the unofficial World Championships in 1921–1936 (known as European Championships back then) which are counted in overall statistics.

All events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon(s)	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Aladár Gerevich	Hungary	Sabre & Foil	1931	1959	(5) 14 (5)	2	(1) 3 (1)	(6) 19 (6)
2	Edoardo Mangiarotti	Italy	Épée & Foil	1937	1958	13	8	5	26
3	Stanislav Pozdnyakov	Russia	Sabre	1994	2007	10	5	2	17
4	Vladimir Nazlymov	Soviet Union	Sabre	1967	1979	10	3	2	15
5	Alexandr Romankov	Soviet Union	Foil	1974	1989	10	2	3	15
6	Pál Kovács	Hungary	Sabre	1933	1958	(1) 10 (1)	2	–	(1) 12 (1)
7	Gustavo Marzi	Italy	Foil & Sabre	1929	1938	(5) 9 (5)	(10) 11 (10)	(1) 1 (1)	(16) 21 (16)
8	German Sveshnikov	Soviet Union	Foil	1958	1969	9	2	1	12
9	Giulio Gaudini	Italy	Foil & Sabre	1929	1938	(7) 8 (7)	(7) 7 (7)	(2) 2 (2)	(16) 17 (16)
10	Christian d'Oriola	France	Foil	1947	1958	8	5	–	13

Individual events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Stanislav Pozdnyakov	Russia	Sabre	1994	2007	5	3	–	8
2	Alexandr Romankov	Soviet Union	Foil	1974	1983	5	1	–	6
3	Pavel Kolobkov	Soviet Union  Russia	Épée	1989	2005	4	1	2	7
4	Christian d'Oriola	France	Foil	1947	1955	4	1	–	5
5	Peter Joppich	Germany	Foil	2003	2010	4	–	1	5
	Grigory Kiriyenko	Soviet Union  Russia	Sabre	1989	1995	4	–	1	5
7	Jerzy Pawłowski	Poland	Sabre	1957	1971	3	4	1	8
8	Sergei Golubitsky	Ukraine	Foil	1993	1999	3	1	1	5
9	Aladár Gerevich	Hungary	Sabre	1935	1955	(1) 3 (1)	1	–	(1) 4 (1)
	Aleksey Nikanchikov	Soviet Union	Épée	1966	1970	3	1	–	4

All events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Valentina Vezzali	Italy	Foil	1994	2016	16	6	4	26
2	Ilona Elek	Hungary	Foil	1933	1956	(5) 11 (5)	(1) 5 (1)	2	(6) 18 (6)
3	Galina Gorokhova	Soviet Union	Foil	1958	1971	9	6	1	16
4	Alexandra Zabelina	Soviet Union	Foil	1956	1971	9	6	–	15
5	Giovanna Trillini	Italy	Foil	1986	2007	9	5	6	20
6	Valentina Sidorova (Burochkina)	Soviet Union	Foil	1973	1986	9	2	1	12
7	Arianna Errigo	Italy	Foil	2009	2019	8	5	5	18
8	Sofya Velikaya	Russia	Sabre	2004	2019	8	5	3	16
9	Margit Elek	Hungary	Foil	1933	1956	(3) 8 (3)	(2) 4 (2)	1	(5) 13 (5)
10	Elena Belova (Novikova)	Soviet Union	Foil	1969	1979	8	4	–	12

Individual events

Rank	Fencer	Country	Weapon	From	To	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Valentina Vezzali	Italy	Foil	1994	2014	6	2	4	12
2	Olha Kharlan	Ukraine	Sabre	2009	2019	4	2	1	7
3	Ilona Elek	Hungary	Foil	1934	1955	(2) 3 (2)	2	1	(2) 6 (2)
4	Ellen Müller-Preis	Austria	Foil	1931	1950	3	(1) 1 (1)	(1) 2 (1)	(2) 6 (2)
5	Inna Deriglazova	Russia	Foil	2013	2019	3	–	1	4
	Cornelia Hanisch	West Germany	Foil	1978	1985	3	–	1	4
7	Helene Mayer	Germany	Foil	1929	1937	(2) 3 (2)	–	–	(2) 3 (2)
8	Sofya Velikaya	Russia	Sabre	2005	2019	2	3	1	6
9	Mariel Zagunis	United States	Sabre	2006	2014	2	3	–	5
10	Giovanna Trillini	Italy	Foil	1990	2007	2	2	3	7