Pan American Fencing Championships

What are the Pan American Fencing Championships?

The Pan American Fencing Championships are the senior continental championships of fencing in the Americas. The FIE classes them as a “Zonal Championship”: its Organisation Rules (August 2026) list “The Zonal Championships, junior and senior” among the FIE’s official competitions (Art. o.3) and state that “The Zonal Championships recognised by the FIE are the Senior Zonal Championships and the Junior Zonal Championships” (Art. o.42.1).^[4]

The senior programme comprises “twelve events, six individual and six team” (Art. o.42.2): foil, épée and sabre for men and for women, each contested individually and by teams.^[4] The 2026 edition followed that programme, with the six individual events on 14–16 June and the six team events on 17–19 June.^[1] The FIE’s own documents call the event the “Pan American Senior Zonal Championships”.^[1][2]

Who organizes the Pan American Fencing Championships?

The championships belong to the Confederación Panamericana de Esgrima (CPE), the FIE’s continental confederation for the Americas. Its statutes list among its objects to “Organizar los Campeonatos Panamericanos de Esgrima en las diferentes Categorías como lo son: Veteranos e Infantiles, Mayores, Cadetes y Juveniles” — the Pan American championships for veterans and children, seniors, cadets and juniors.^[5]

Each edition is staged by a host national federation. The invitation for the 2026 edition, published by the FIE, names the organiser as the “Peruvian Fencing Federation, in cooperation with the Pan American Fencing Confederation (CPE)”.^[1] The rules are the FIE’s: the event is an FIE official competition, entries are made through the FIE’s system, and anti-doping control follows FIE regulations.^[4][1]

When and where is it held?

The CPE’s statutes require a senior championship every year: “La Confederación Panamericana de Esgrima, efectuará cada año los Campeonatos Panamericanos de Esgrima para mayores” (Art. 30).^[5] Recent editions have been held in June.

The 2026 edition was set by its invitation for 13–19 June 2026 at Polideportivo 1 of the CAR VIDENA complex in San Luis, Lima, and the FIE reported the team events from Lima on 22 June 2026.^[1][2] The 2025 edition was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 24 to 29 June 2025, according to the FIE.^[9] The 2024 edition was held in Lima, from 25 to 30 June 2024, with twelve individual and team events, according to the FIE.^[3] Hosts and dates of editions before 2024 could not be confirmed from FIE documents. No 2027 senior edition had been announced in the documents retrieved on 4 October 2026.

Senior editions whose host and dates could be confirmed from FIE documents, newest first. The format column gives the events held.^[3][9]

Since when do the Pan American Fencing Championships exist?

The year of the first Pan American Fencing Championships could not be established from the CPE’s or the FIE’s pages. The confederation itself dates its formation to the first Pan American Games: its history page states that “Desde la realización de los primeros Juegos Deportivos Panamericanos en 1951 la Confederación Panamericana de Esgrima se constituyó”.^[6] The founding of the confederation and the first edition of its championships are separate dates, and only the first is documented by the CPE.

The annual senior championship and the annual under-20 championship are both written into the statutes the CPE publishes, which also provide for the American-zone Olympic qualifying tournaments “según lo dispuesto por la FIE”.^[5] The CPE’s site records junior and cadet championships separately, such as the 2023 edition in Bogotá.^[8]

How do athletes qualify?

There is no qualifying round: fencers are entered by their national federations. Under the FIE Organisation Rules, “at each weapon, the federations may enter up to four fencers” in the individual events and one team of three fencers, with or without a reserve, in each team event (Art. o.42.5).^[4]

The 2026 invitation applied the same quotas — “4 athletes / weapon / gender / federation” and “One team/ weapon/ gender / federation” — required entries through the FIE website, and stated that “A valid current FIE license is required”. Entry fees were set at 60 US dollars per individual and 200 US dollars per team.^[1]

Why does it matter?

The measurable value is ranking points and Games qualification. Under the FIE Organisation Rules, the official senior individual and team rankings include the zonal championships (Arts. o.108.1, o.109.1), and “Points obtained in a Grand Prix and a Zonal Championship competition of the FIE are multiplied by a factor of 1.5” (Art. o.108.2).^[4]

The 2026 invitation states that “The competition will be a qualifier for the Lima 2027 Games”, with a qualification manual to be shared by the CPE; the Panam Sports qualification system for fencing at Lima 2027 could not be retrieved.^[1] Fencing is on the Lima 2027 programme (23 July – 8 August 2027).^[7] The FIE’s qualification system for Los Angeles 2028 could not be retrieved. Prize money was not published in the documents retrieved.

Who competes?

The championships are open to the CPE’s member federations, which under Article 9 of its statutes are all the countries affiliated to the FIE that abide by those statutes; senior men and women compete in all three weapons.^[5] Fencers must hold a current FIE licence.^[1]

The FIE’s report on the 2026 edition records that the United States won all six team events in Lima.^[2] The number of nations and fencers entered in 2026 was not given in the FIE documents retrieved.