Wheelchair fencing, from Stoke Mandeville to the Paralympics.

Guttmann and Stoke Mandeville

The IPC's history of wheelchair fencing (21 July 2016) credits Sir Ludwig Guttmann, founder of the Paralympic Movement and himself a keen fencer, with developing wheelchair fencing at Stoke Mandeville in the 1950s. World Abilitysport, which British Fencing's 2023 page names as the sport's international governing body, also credits Guttmann.

When it began: three accounts

The weapons arrive, 1955 to 1957

The IPC's history dates each weapon separately:

• Sabre, 1955. Sabre competition was added to the Stoke Mandeville programme.
• Foil, 1956. A foil event for women was held.
• Epee, 1957. Epee events were added. The same year, trial frames to hold the wheelchairs in place began at Stoke Mandeville; the IPC says they were later developed in the Netherlands and then in Italy.

Rome 1960

At the first Paralympic Games, Rome 1960, the IPC records three wheelchair fencing medal events: men's sabre, men's team sabre and women's foil. Only Italian athletes competed. The IPC confirmed in January 2025 that fencing has been on the Paralympic programme since those first Games.

Later Paralympic changes

• Women's epee, 1988. Said to have joined the Paralympics at Seoul 1988, but this rests on a search summary of Wikipedia and is unconfirmed.
• Team events, 2008 and 2012. The IPC says team events were dropped from the Beijing 2008 programme and brought back at London 2012.
• Rio 2016. The IPC records 88 wheelchair fencers in 14 medal events.
• Women's sabre, Tokyo 2020. The IPC says women's sabre made its Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, completing the individual programme for men and women. Bian Jing (category A) and Tan Shumei (category B), both of China, won the first golds.
• Paris 2024 and LA28. The IPC's results archive lists the Paris 2024 wheelchair fencing medal table, with China first. For LA28 the IPC confirmed on 3 June 2025 sixteen medal events (seven men's, seven women's and two mixed or open) and 96 athletes, 48 men and 48 women, the same quota as Paris.

The categories referred to above, A, B and C, are set by the IWAS classification rules (version of 12 November 2016), which group five sport classes by sitting balance and fencing-arm function. British Fencing and USA Fencing both say category C is not contested at the Paralympic Games. When the category system was introduced was not found.

People in the record

The IPC's 2016 history names three fencers as part of the sport's story:

• Pal Szekeres of Hungary won an Olympic bronze medal at Seoul 1988 (the IPC does not name the event) and, after a bus accident in 1991, Paralympic gold at Barcelona 1992. The IPC describes him as the first athlete to win medals at both the Olympic and the Paralympic Games. In 2025 the IPC named him as chair of the World Para Fencing Executive Committee.
• Roberto Marson of Italy held the most Paralympic wheelchair fencing medals, 15, as of the IPC's 2016 article.
• Yu Chui Yee of Hong Kong won four golds at Athens 2004, the most by a wheelchair fencer at one Games, again as of 2016.

Who runs it: from IWAS to World Para Fencing

Wikipedia records the wheelchair fencing committee of IWAS, the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation, as the sport's rules authority. British Fencing (2023) describes IWAS as using the FIE rules with additions for the wheelchair and its position, clothing and equipment. The newest wheelchair rule book found for this site is the IWAS Technical Rules of January 2018, so later changes may not be reflected. Wikipedia records that IWAS merged with CPISRA, a merger approved in November 2022, and rebranded as World Abilitysport in April 2023; that rests on Wikipedia alone.

On 15 January 2025 the IPC announced that the sport was taking the name World Para Fencing from 2025. The federation said the name reflects the range of disabled people who fence and its aim of opening the sport to other impairment groups, with wheelchair fencing expected to become one discipline within Para fencing.

The name in use differs by source. The IPC uses World Para Fencing; British Fencing's 2023 page and USA Fencing's classification page use IWAS or World Abilitysport. This reflects when each page was written rather than a dispute over who governs. British Fencing's 2023 page also says the sport is practised in 73 countries, a single-sourced claim.

How wheelchair fencing works today is on wheelchair fencing, and this season's events are on wheelchair fencing 2026.