IOC adds women's fencing event

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- The IOC on Thursday agreed to include a women's sabre event in the fencing competition at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, settling a dispute that caused a rift among European fencers.

The decision means that both men and women will compete in the foil, epee and sabre disciplines at the games, the International Olympic Committee said.

However, the committee eliminated the women's foil team event so that the number of events will not change. Men will compete in all three team events, but there will only be women's team event in epee.

The decision on which events should be included in the Athens games caused a furore in the International Fencing Federation.

It had asked for two extra events -- women's individual and team sabre -- and an increase in athletes to 240 from 200. That was rejected by the IOC, which said new events could only be added if others were removed.

The French federation then proposed that the events to be excluded should be decided by drawing lots. That was done, with the men's team foil and women's team sabre events being drawn.

The draw upset athletes from a number of European countries, as well as the IOC, which said it was unhappy with the method of deciding which events to drop.

In an emergency meeting, the federation's executive committee decided to leave out women's team sabre and team foil because they had the lowest number of entries of the team events at the 2001 world championships.

 

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