Italscherma, the revolution has been triggered

Italscherma, new ct

A few days before the expiration of the term of office of the technical commissioners of the Italian National Teams, the Council of the Italian Fencing Federation met today in Catania and deliberated the appointments of the CTs who will lead the Olympic sector. The positions of Weapon Managers were given to Dario Chiadò, reappointed to lead epee, Simone Vanni for foil, Andrea Terenzio for men’s saber and Andrea Aquili for women’s saber.

At the end of the first part of the ongoing work of the Council, which will continue tomorrow, Federal President Luigi Mazzone on the technical choices of the Olympic sector commented: “First of all, a thank you, dutiful and heartfelt for the great work done and the results achieved in the last four years, to the outgoing CTs Stefano Cerioni and Nicola Zanotti. The changes at the helm of foil and saber certainly do not represent a rejection to managements that have given so much to Italian fencing, but as their respective mandates expired, we opted for a renewal that, we are sure, will be able to give further stimulus and new energy to the whole movement. We have serenely, carefully and thoroughly analyzed the situations of the three arms, which have different needs and specificities. Precisely as a result of these evaluations, we considered it useful to split the leadership of saber, devoting more investment and attention to a sector that will surely benefit with one CT dedicated to the men’s group and another to the women’s. We have relied on technicians of undisputed quality, convinced that the appointments of Simone Vanni for foil, Andrea Terenzio for sabre and Andrea Aquili for sabre can be an added value for their respective specialties, bringing experience and enthusiasm. For epee, on the other hand, we have chosen the line of continuityà, certain that the path taken by Dario Chiadò, which reached its peak with the Olympic gold medal in Paris, can give us many more satisfactions”, concluded FIS President Luigi Mazzone.

Epee, therefore, starts again from Dario Chiadò, 57-year-old Turin CT (he used to direct the’Marchesa Academy) who in three years – from 2022 to 2024, in the Absolute category alone – has led his weapon to 20 medals between European, World and Olympic Games, among which shine, most of all, the gold at the Games of the women’s team in Paris 2024, never won in history, and the rainbow title of the men’s team in Milan 2023, which had been missing since 1993.
Foil, on the other hand, passes from Stefano Cerioni to Simone Vanni. Pisano, who will be 46 years old tomorrow, Vanni è was individual world champion and Olympic team champion as an athlete, before d’embarking on a technical career that has seen him, in parallel, engaged as CT of the National Paralympic Foil Team, creator of Bebe Vio & Co.’s successes at the Rio, Tokyo and Paris Games, and as master of the Olympic sector at Pisascherma.
Great international experience also in the new choices of saber, where the technical leadership that in the last three years had been Nicola Zanotti is doubled. Men’s group entrusted to Andrea Terenzio, from Foggia class ’82 and master – among others of Luigi Samele – at Virtus Scherma Bologna, for him it will be a return home after the Olympic triumph obtained in Paris as Technical Commissioner of the National Women’s Team of Ukraine, an experience to which è arrived after years of appreciated work also in the blue staff.
È a veteran of the Italian National Team Andrea Aquili: 44-year-old Roman (native of Rocca di Papa), first an athlete and then a long-time teacher at Frascati Fencing, takes the helm of women’s saber of which he was already the referent as well as from 2022 Technical Director for fencing of the Fiamme Oro sports group.

The weekend of the debuts of the new CTs in the World Cup è set between March 6 and 9: men’s and women’s foil with Vanni will be on stage on the Egyptian platforms in Cairo, Aquili’s sabre fencers will be engaged in Heraklion, Greece, while Terenzio with his sabre fencers will make their home debut in the historic “Luxardo” Trophy in Padua.
The Chiadò-bis leading epee, however, will begin the following weekend with the Budapest Grand Prix.
For everyone, of course, there are two major events this season: the European Championships in Italy, which will be held in Genoa from June 14 to 19, and the World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia, scheduled for the last week of July.