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Fencing is a niche but fundamental sport in the Olympics, contested at every Summer Games since 1896. Yet despite its genteel reputation and simple objective \u2014 touch an opponent with your blade before being touched \u2014 the sport has long been rife with drama<\/a> and suspicion<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two months before the Paris Olympics<\/a>, international saber fencing is engulfed by questions about the integrity of refereeing, accusations of preferential treatment and concerns among top athletes and coaches that their sport\u2019s tangled connections may be helping decide who gets to compete at the Games.<\/p>\n The federation that governs fencing in the United States, USA Fencing, recently suspended two international referees<\/a> after they acknowledged communicating with each other during an Olympic qualifying tournament in California. It grew so concerned about two other referees that it asked the sport\u2019s global governing body to ensure that those two judges were no longer assigned to any matches involving Americans.<\/p>\n And just last week, more than a half-dozen elite fencers demanded harsher punishments and urgent action<\/a> to protect a sport that they say is \u201cvulnerable to unfair refereeing and match-fixing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPart of me feels so foolish for thinking all this time\u201d that the sport was built on honor, integrity and dedication, said Andrew Mackiewicz, 28, an American saber fencer who competed at the Tokyo Olympics<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t,\u201d he added. \u201cIt was like a mirage.\u201d He said he stepped away from the sport in February because of his concerns about unscrupulous refereeing.<\/p>\n While fencing relies on electronic scoring, it is referees who parse the complicated rules of attack during each match and decide if a point, or touch, is valid. Those rules bring an element of subjectivity to the scoring, and saber fencing, one of the sport\u2019s three disciplines along with \u00e9p\u00e9e and foil, can be particularly challenging because its athletes lunge explosively at one another and deliver touches nearly simultaneously.<\/p>\n Subjectivity \u201ccreates a lot of room for corruption,\u201d which can be difficult to prove, said Yury Gelman, a longtime fencing coach at St. John\u2019s University in New York who will coach his seventh Olympics at the Paris Games. In an interview, Mr. Gelman expressed frustration that little was being done to address saber fencing\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The referees who were suspended last month by USA Fencing, Jacobo Morales and Brandon Romo, have been barred from judging matches in tournaments overseen by the federation for nine months. They denied any manipulation of the match. An investigation into their conduct began after they appeared to have communicated during a match in January involving a top American saber fencer, Tatiana Nazlymov, 19, at an Olympic qualifying tournament.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n USA Fencing had initially sought 10-year bans for both men but ultimately decided on lesser punishments after a disciplinary panel report, reviewed by The New York Times, found \u201cthe appearance of impropriety\u201d but no credible evidence to support collusion or other manipulation.<\/p>\n They were not the only referees, though, who had drawn the attention of the American federation. Months earlier, Phil Andrews, the chief executive of USA Fencing, had written with alarm to the sport\u2019s global governing body, the International Fencing Federation, to express concern that there was \u201clikely to be improper officiating\u201d of bouts involving Ms. Nazlymov and another leading American saber fencer, Mitchell Saron.<\/p>\n In its letter, which was sent on Dec. 3 and reviewed by The Times, USA Fencing said it was primarily concerned with two referees, Vasil Milenchev of Bulgaria and Yevgeniy Dyaokokin of Kazakhstan. Video evidence, the letter said, indicated that calls made by those referees in bouts involving Mr. Saron and Ms. Nazlymov showed \u201ca likely favoritism\u201d toward them.<\/p>\n As a result, USA Fencing requested that Mr. Milenchev and Mr. Dyaokokin no longer be assigned to bouts involving any American fencers. Mr. Andrews said he understood that the International Fencing Federation responded to the letter with an investigation but was unaware of its outcome.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The international federation did not respond to requests for comment, but both referees continue to judge matches<\/a> involving American fencers. Attempts to reach Mr. Milenchev and Mr. Dyaokokin through the international federation were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n In a second letter written by USA Fencing that was sent to Ms. Nazlymov and Mr. Saron on Dec. 18 and also reviewed by The Times, Mr. Andrews told the athletes that the federation was aware that \u201cpotential preferential officiating treatment\u201d was benefiting their performances in international competitions, and warned them that they could be stripped of some points they had accumulated toward Olympic qualification if \u201cstrong evidence\u201d of match manipulation emerged.<\/p>\n Ms. Nazlymov and Mr. Saron have since been named to the U.S. team for the Paris Olympics. And by March, USA Fencing\u2019s concerns seemed to have eased. Mr. Saron acknowledged through a spokesman that on March 6 he had received a text message, which was reviewed by The Times, from a federation official saying that he was not a cause for concern.<\/p>\n Mr. Andrews said in an interview that there was no evidence that either fencer knew of or knowingly took advantage of improper refereeing. And preliminary results from an independent investigation<\/a> into match manipulation in saber fencing found \u201cno evidence that individual U.S. fencers were actively involved in manipulating their own bouts,\u201d the federation said in late April.<\/p>\n Ms. Nazlymov did not respond to a request for comment. But her mother, Zheng Wang, wrote in an email that \u201cTatiana is absolutely innocent and the cheating\/matchfixing accusation is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The latest flashpoint came in early January, when Ms. Nazlymov was involved in the match at the North American Cup in San Jose, Calif.<\/p>\n According to a USA Fencing disciplinary panel, with the score tied at 12-12, Mr. Romo began to seek input from Mr. Morales before awarding points to either fencer, and Mr. Morales acknowledged responding via hand gestures. Such communication is a violation of fencing\u2019s rules.<\/p>\n Howard Jacobs, a California lawyer who represented Mr. Morales, the more experienced referee, said his client was simply affirming calls that the less-experienced Mr. Romo planned to make, and that no decisions were changed because of their communications. According to the report, Mr. Romo said he was seeking only confirmation of his intended calls.<\/p>\nJudgment Calls<\/h2>\n
A Web of Connections<\/h2>\n