Recalls, withdrawals and the rules that followed incidents.

Regulator action

European Commission Decision 2011/49/EU (25 January 2011): 350N jacket and breeches

The European Commission upheld a United Kingdom prohibition on fencing protective clothing sold as "Jiang 350N Stretch Jacket and Breeches", made by Wuxi Husheng Sports Goods Plant in China and imported into the UK. According to the decision:

• the UK notified its measure on 25 August 2008;
• a UK test report found insufficient penetration resistance under EN 13567:2002;
• the certificate of conformity carried the number of a body notified only under the Machinery Directive, not under the Personal Protective Equipment Directive;
• the Commission found a serious risk for users and held the UK prohibition justified, under Article 7 of Directive 89/686/EEC.

An earlier reported ban, not confirmed

A fencing news and community website reported on 22 January 2009 that an EU RAPEX weekly report had led to an EU sales ban on a jacket and breeches labelled "Beijing FIE 800N" from the same maker, for failing the EN 13567 Level 2 penetration requirement, and that the UK importer had begun a voluntary recall. The RAPEX notification itself was not found, so this single report is unconfirmed. The same website reported that the maker denied the test failure and blamed a rival maker, which said it had sent an unaltered jacket to an accredited test house with the results passed to UK Trading Standards in August 2008. These are each side's claims as reported.

Governing-body withdrawals (not regulator recalls)

• Sabre masks, 2015: British Fencing published on 7 August 2015 a Safety Committee note dated 29 June 2015 saying the FIE no longer permitted earlier versions of PBT sabre masks at its competitions. British Fencing said it knew of four accidents in the previous 18 months, two in the UK, in which an unbroken sabre blade penetrated the side of these masks, with no serious injury. PBT offered upgrades to its latest homologated version.
• Masks, 2025: the FIE SEMI Commission's report of July 2025 records approval of a Prieur mask fix after updated samples addressed a safety risk, notified to the Executive Committee; the report does not describe the risk. It also records that an issue with a Leon Paul mask was found to be due to assembly, with re-homologation judged unnecessary. No public recall notice for either was found.
• Labelled but below standard, 2014: the SEMI minutes of July 2014 record that tests on equipment involved in fencing accidents found some items below the homologation standard despite carrying the correct label, raising the possibility of counterfeits or weaker later batches.

Rule changes that followed incidents

The IOC's fencing injury chapter (Harmer, 2010) noted, as of its 2010 publication, that FIE safety equipment and rule changes had been based on face validity and that no research had tested whether any of them worked. The changes below are given as the bodies and sources date them.

The mask-strap dates disagree and are set out in full on masks; the dated move to maraging blades, including the disagreement over the sabre date, is on blades and maraging steel.

Deaths in the published record

The IOC chapter reports that, as of its 2010 publication, ten deaths worldwide since 1937 had resulted from penetrating wounds in fencing: all men; three at foil, six at epee and one at sabre; seven from a broken blade, two from an intact blade and one unknown. Research on penetrating injuries and deaths is on penetrating injuries and deaths.

Rome, 1982 (foil)

Olympedia records that Vladimir Smirnov of the USSR, the 1980 Olympic foil champion, was fatally injured at the 1982 World Championships in Rome when his opponent's weapon broke and a piece pierced his mask. The date of death differs: Olympedia gives 28 July 1982 and Wikipedia 29 July 1982; a 2012 Reuters report says he died about ten days after the injury, Material Intelligence nine days.

What the death changed is also described differently:

• Reuters (2012) quotes the official it describes as the FIE's international technical director attributing current safety standards to the death, and lists later changes: ballistic-grade uniform fabric, stronger blade steel, more rigid masks that must withstand 12 kg punch tests, and the foil bib becoming valid target.
• Material Intelligence says masks were made three times stronger with the 12 kg punch test and carbon-steel blades were replaced by maraging steel after the accident.
• Wikipedia links the death to maraging steel, Kevlar or other ballistic nylon in uniforms and stronger masks, the mask claim marked as needing a citation.
• The International Molybdenum Association (2014) dates the FIE's search for a new blade steel to the 1980s without naming the death.

No FIE document was found that ties a dated rule change to this death, so the link rests on the published accounts above. Each injury needs medical care; this page reports the record only.