How big of a sport is fencing in Georgia?
“Georgia used to be part of the Soviet Republic and now is an independent state. Up until the 1992 Olympics, we participated as part of the Soviet state. Georgia has a population of only four-and-a-half million people but we had two Olympic champions in fencing and close to 15 world champions, plus numerous junior world champions. Fencing is a top-five sport in Georgia and people would know the fencers’ names and would recognize them in the papers. People follow fencing very closely there. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Georgia won 12 medals and four were gold, including one in fencing. There also were four silver and four bronze. We sent 16 competitors to the Olympics that year and 12 came back with medals. “Fencing is big all through Russia and the former parts of the Soviet Union. Georgia is probably one of the top-five fencing areas in the old Soviet Union, with the top being Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, all of which are much larger in population. There was 70 years of history that Ge
