# Fencing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's team foil

The men's team foil event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 1 August 2021 at the Makuhari Messe. 27 fencers (9 teams of 3) from 9 nations are expected to compete.

## Background

This will be the 24th appearance of the event. It was first held in 1904, but omitted in 1908 (when no foil medal events were held) and 1912 (when it was the only one of the six possible men's events not included). The men's team foil returned in 1920 and has been held at every Summer Olympics since 1920 except 2008 (during the time when team events were rotated off the schedule, with only two of the three weapons for each of the men's and women's categories).
The reigning Olympic champion is Russia (Aleksey Cheremisinov, Artur Akhmatkhuzin, and Timur Safin). The reigning World Champion is the United States (Miles Chamley-Watson, Race Imboden, Alexander Massialas, and Gerek Meinhardt). A preview from Olympics.com identified 2016 individual gold medalist Daniele Garozzo as the leader of a strong Italian team that will compete with the United States (especially 2016 silver medalist Massialas) and France (especially 2019 individual World Champion Enzo Lefort) for the team and individual medals in foil.

## Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a team of 3 fencers in the men's team foil. These fencers also automatically qualified for the individual event.
There are 8 dedicated quota spots for men's team foil. They are allocated as through the world team ranking list of 5 April 2021. The top 4 spots, regardless of geographic zone, qualify (United States, France, Italy, and ROC). The next four spots are allocated to separate geographic zones, as long as an NOC from that zone is in the top 16. These places went to Hong Kong (Asia/Oceania), Canada (Americas), Egypt (Africa), and Germany (Europe).
Additionally, there are 8 host/invitational spots that can be spread throughout the various fencing events. Japan qualified one men's foil fencer through normal individual qualification and used two host quota places to complete a men's foil team.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed many of the events for qualifying for fencing, moving the close of the rankings period back to April 5, 2021 rather than the original April 4, 2020.

## Competition format

The 2020 tournament is a single-elimination tournament, with classification matches for all places. Each match features the three fencers on each team competing in a round-robin, with 9 three-minute bouts to 5 points; the winning team is the one that reaches 45 total points first or is leading after the end of the nine bouts. Standard foil rules regarding target area, striking, and priority are used.

## Schedule

The competition is held over a single day, Sunday, 1 August. The first session runs from 9 a.m. to approximately 4 p.m. (when all matches except the bronze and gold medal finals are expected to conclude), after which there is a break until 6:30 p.m. before the medal bouts are held.
All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Sunday, 1 August 2021 | 9:00    18:30 | Round of 16 Quarterfinals Semifinals Classification 7/8 Classification 5/6 Bronze medal match Gold medal match |

## Results

| Round of 16 | Round of 16 | Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| | | United States | 45 | | |
| | | Germany | 36 | | |
| Canada | 31 | Germany | 36 | | |
| Germany | 45 | | | | |
| Germany | 45 | | | United States | 41 |
| | | | | ROC | 45 |
| | | Hong Kong | 39 | | |
| | | ROC | 45 | | |
| | | | | | | ROC | 28 |
| | | | | | | France | 45 |
| | | Italy | 43 | | | | |
| | | Japan | 45 | | | | |
| | | | | Japan | 42 | | |
| | | | | France | 45 | Bronze medal bout | Bronze medal bout |
| | | Egypt | 34 | | | United States | 45 |
| | | France | 45 | | | Japan | 31 |
5–8th place classification
| 5–8th place semifinals | 5–8th place semifinals | Fifth place bout | Fifth place bout |
| Germany | 45 |
| Hong Kong | 38 | | |
| Hong Kong | 38 | Germany | |
| | | Italy | WD |
| Italy | 45 | Italy | WD |
| Egypt | 30 | | |
| Egypt | 30 | Seventh place bout | Seventh place bout |
| | | Hong Kong | 45 |
| | | Egypt | 21 |

## Final classification

| Rank | Team | Athlete |
| | France | Erwann Le Péchoux Enzo Lefort Julien Mertine Maxime Pauty |
| | ROC | Anton Borodachev Kirill Borodachev Vladislav Mylnikov Timur Safin |
| | United States | Race Imboden Nick Itkin Alexander Massialas Gerek Meinhardt |
| 4 | Japan | Kyosuke Matsuyama Yudai Nagano Toshiya Saito Takahiro Shikine |
| 5 | Italy | Giorgio Avola Andrea Cassarà Alessio Foconi Daniele Garozzo |
| 6 | Germany | Peter Joppich Benjamin Kleibrink Luis Klein André Sanità |
| 7 | Hong Kong | Cheung Ka-long Cheung Siu Lun Ryan Choi Lawrence Ng |
| 8 | Egypt | Alaaeldin Abouelkassem Mohamed Hamza Mohamed Hassan Youssef Sanaa |
| 9 | Canada | Blake Broszus Alex Cai Maximilien Van Haaster |