The first course at the Academy has been greeted with much enthusiasm by the European fencing federations, showing the appetite for programmes of this kind. Statistics from Olympic Solidarity show fencing is the number two sport in terms of applications for Olympic Scholarships for coaches.

Some facts and figures – it is of great encouragement to the FIE that some 18 countries are represented on the first course: Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Finland, Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine. Of the 26 coaches, 14 are men and 12 are women, with one Olympic medallist in their midst: Zsolt Nemcsik of Hungary, who won silver in the individual sabre in Athens.

The second course, starting on 5 April, will be launched alongside the FIE Athletes Career Program. Six places on the course will be reserved for athletes wanting to remain in the sport after hanging up their weapons. The second course will be open to coaches from Asia, while the six candidates from the ACP will be selected from all over the world – the application process is open now.