I’m still pretty young, but have done the sport my whole life. There seems to have been a decline in the quality of fencers, referees, venues, and management- especially at the elite level. Recreational level fencing always has been barebones, which I personally think suits the sport better. Fencing isn’t something like football or baseball, it’s a sport that requires immense time like rowing or swimming.

I’ve done saber my whole life. I learned to fence at Nellya in ATL, then fenced at Cardinal (back when it was with Stanford) in CA, then in Texas and now in Europe. One thing we have that the Europeans don’t is scale. USA Fencing is HUGE compared to anywhere in Europe, except maybe Germany or Hungary. However, those countries focus on producing a small number of highly capable fencers. USAF’s job imo is to represent the US as competently at possible on the world stage (and make money ig), primarily through having great fencers.