The present substitution guidelines for fencing within the Olympic Video games work a bit of otherwise than every other regular crew fencing competitors. Within the Video games, in the event you sub somebody in, it’s everlasting. They keep in for the rest of the occasion. That is totally different from regular substitution guidelines, as in a standard crew competitors, the substitution resets each match, and even throughout the identical match the unique fencer can return for yet another bout.
Price noting is that this was changed for the 2012 London games – beforehand the Olympic Fencing crew guidelines have been much more restrictive. Beforehand no tactical substitution was allowed – subbing was solely attainable both earlier than a match started or for a verified medical problem. Now this requirement is gone, however the the rest of the rule continues to be current.
Presumably the Worldwide Olympic Committee does this with a purpose to restrict the variety of medals they hand out and limit the status of the title of “Olympian”. Alternates aren’t thought-about “Olympians” till they’re tagged in, nor do they obtain a medal if the crew does nicely until they really fenced. This case creates a number of issues.
It makes the Staff occasions materially totally different from the usual Fencing crew occasion ruleset. It’s attainable to make a extra unrestricted tactical use of your crew’s alternate in a standard crew occasion. Tag them in towards a fencer you understand they’re robust towards, for instance, realizing that you simply’ll be capable of reset this alternative both later within the match or when the following match begins. That is a lot much less viable of an possibility within the Olympics, as a result of as a substitute of a brief change, it’s each everlasting from a tactical standpoint and in addition opens up larger threat of a later loss attributable to harm. It takes away a dimension of play out there in each different World Cup, Grand Prix, or World Championship stage crew bout.
This rule distinctive to the Olympics creates conditions the place injured fencers are compelled to proceed to fence once they would in any other case have substituted out. On the Olympics this 12 months in Tokyo, at the very least two bouts have been fenced with an injured fencer as a result of the crew had already used their substitute – the ROC vs France final in Women’s Foil the place Marta Martyanova was compelled to fence with an injured foot and was wheelcharied out of the venue afterwards; and the USA vs Iran placement bout in Males’s Saber the place Daryl Homer was compelled to fence basically on one leg for a bout and a half with a pulled groin/hamstring, leading to a US medical forfeit of their subsequent spherical. Moreover, Germany medically withdrew from their closing match, seemingly for related causes. This rule places athletes able the place they’re inspired to proceed to fence, risking additional, extra grievous or everlasting harm. Guidelines that put athletes liable to extreme harm usually are not within the spirit of the Olympics.
Lastly, it isn’t even an efficient rule for the needs the IOC has for it – not in Fencing, at the very least. Groups of their closing matches will tag of their substitutes with a purpose to grant them a medal or the Olympian title. It requires little or no sacrifice on the a part of the crew to take action, notably due to the location rounds within the Olympics offers groups a threat free alternative to sub in the event that they aren’t in medal competition. Solely on uncommon event does a crew not do that, and it often solely occurs if it would put the crew at a tactical drawback within the Gold medal bout. The rule being in place has prevented only a few medals or “Olympian” titles from really being handed out.
The IOC have been loosening up other team event rules, with justifications purportedly much like those outlined above. They only didn’t lengthen this variation to Fencing within the 2020 Video games.
This Olympics-specific crew substitution ruleset is nearly utterly ineffective to its meant functions and in lots of conditions actively harmful to athletes. It must go, and get replaced with regular crew guidelines.
