2010 IFA fascinating facts about fencing The first week of each month, IFA will post a new fencing fact. Did you know that: The longest ever fencing bout was 7 hours. (Source: Fun Fencing Facts) Fencing was also a sport in ancient Greece.  (Source: Fun Fencing Facts) The First Olympic Games of the Modern era were in 1896 in Athens, Greece.  Unlike other sports in which only amateurs were allowed to compete, professionals were also allowed to compete in fencing.  Four events were scheduled, but the épée  was cancelled for unknown reasons. The foil event was won by a Frenchman, Eugène-Henri Gravelotte, who beat his countryman, Henri Callot, in the final.  The other two events, the sabre and the masters foil, were won by the Greek fencer Leonidas Pyrgos, who became the first Greek Olympic champion in the modern era.  (Source: Wikipedia)  Ballet emerged in the late fifteenth-century Renaissance court culture of Italy as a dance interpretation of fencing, and further developed in the French court from the time of Louis XIV in the 17th century (Source: Wikipedia) March qoute: "The essence of fencing is to give, but by no means to receive." -Moliere