Even with modern equipment and full body armor, it's still a dangerous sport. At the 1982 world championships, Soviet foil expert Vladimir Smirnov -- who had collected a full collection of medals two years earlier at the Moscow Games -- died when his opponent's sword broke, pierced his mask, and went directly through his head.

There are three different weapons used in international fencing tournaments.

The foil is a steel sword with a tapered blade that's used for thrusting and only scores when an opponent's torso is touched. The classic épée, a weapon that takes its historical cues from European dueling swords, is the same length as the foil but has a larger and heavier hand guard. Any part of the body is fair game. Finally, the sabre is related to the scimitar of the Middle East. It's as light as the foil, but is about an inch shorter in length and features a blunt point. In a nod to horseback fighting, only hits above the hips are scored.

In competition, the object is not to dismember or decapitate your opponent. Full white body armor makes that unlikely, anyway. Action takes place on a piste, a 59-foot (18m) long runway that is charged with electric current. Other technology, in place since the 1980's, is used to score hits: in épée and foil fencing, an electric touchpoint at the end of a weapon registers a pulse when a full-millisecond hit is registered. In sabre, the entire blade is in play, so the officiating director's eye is more important.

As in other combat sports, where a logical and unofficiated match might end in bloodshed or worse, fencing has used many different methods to separate winners and losers in a safe, injury-free way. Matches are first to 15 points, and if the score is tied after nine minutes a one-minute overtime begins. But before the extra frame starts, lots are drawn to see which fencer wold win should no touch be scored.

Team competitions involve three-member squads who face off two at a time, attempting to rack up 45 total touches within the time limit. If overtime is necessary, the first team to record a touch within a minute is the winner.

Fencing Fun Facts:

• This sport has a full vocabulary all its own, and most of it sounds foreign unless you're French. After a salute to opponents and officials, the fencers don their masks and assume the en garde position.

  A balestra is a mini-leap towards an opponent, a fleché is a quick run at him or her. A lunge, from the French allonger , is a sudden attack balanced by a front-leg extension. And a reprise is a successful recovery from a lunge followed by an attack of one's own.

• It's not just a sport, it's a w... you know the rest. Marcel Marceau, the famous mime, once said, "Fencing is a school of humility and develops speed, perfect control of the body, balance, beauty and strong grace. It should be recommended to all men wanting to master their feelings and actions during their lifetimes."

• One of the timeless Olympic fencers was Ivan Osiier of Denmark. No specialist, he trained and competed in all three swords and competed at seven Olympics from London 1908 all the way to London 1948, when he was 59 years old. He had a lot of close calls, but he only set foot on the podium once: a silver at Stockholm 1912 in men's épée.

  His wife Ellen competed in only one Games, becoming fencing's first female gold medalist Paris 1924 (women's foil).

• Fencing was prominently featured in Leni Riefenstahl's groundbreaking documentary of the 1936 Games, Olympia. Here's a famous and fantastic scene in which only the competitors' shadows are shown.

In 2008:

Fencing will take place at the Convention Center at the Olympic Green in downtown Beijing. The dates are August 9 (Day 1) through 17 (Day 9).

Women's team foil and team saber have replaced women's team epee. Men's team foil, an Olympic event since 1920, has been removed from the program. For men, individual events in épée, foil and sabre will be contested, as will team épée and sabre. On the women's side, individual tournaments for each sword type, and the two aforementioned team events.

A total of 45 nations will compete. Each country may enter up to three fencers for weapons with team events and two for the others. For qualifying purposes, the eight highest ranked teams were chosen first, then highest ranked fencers. Continental qualifications in April filled out remaining spots.

Individual events will occur in single-elimination tournament format, each in a single day and lasting around nine hours. Team events take about 11 hours to complete, and begin with eight-team quarterfinals. Unlike in most combat sports, semifinal losers will square off for bronze.

All-Time Medal Standings:

Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
France	42	39	35	116
Italy	43	39	27	109
Hungary	34	22	26	82
Soviet Union	18	15	16	49
Germany	6	9	10	25
Poland	4	8	9	21
United States	2	6	12	20
West Germany	7	8	1	16
Russia	8	2	5	15
Belgium	5	3	5	13
Romania	3	3	6	12
Cuba	4	3	3	10
Great Britain	1	9	0	10
Greece	3	3	3	9
Switzerland	1	4	3	8
Netherlands	0	1	7	8
Sweden	2	3	2	7
China	1	5	1	7
Austria	1	1	5	7
Denmark	1	2	3	6
Unified Team	1	2	2	5
South Korea	1	0	1	2
Bohemia	0	0	2	2
Mixed Team	1	0	0	1
East Germany	0	1	0	1
Mexico	0	1	0	1
Portugal	0	0	1	1
Argentina	0	0	1	1
Ukraine	0	0	1	1

(Photo via 1936 Official Report; rules diagrams adapted from The Rule Book)