encing, much like boxing, is rooted very deeply in our history and epitomises fighting spirit. Indeed, fencing is one of the sports where brute force and size are not enough to prevail. It requires a fine balance of tactics, patience, explosiveness and respect. Fencing is a military sport par excellence. Swords are still worn proudly by officers in most of our Armed Forces. It is therefore only logical that fencing should be included in the list of international CISM events. Fencing in CISM was born with our organization and over the years, fencing strips throughout the world have seen military athletes compete with swords, foils and sabres. Until today, 39 World Military Fencing Championships took place in 17 countries from Europe, Africa and America. The first World Military Fencing Championship took place in 1947 in Baden-Baden, France, that was also the first country that organized, thirty four years later, in Rennes, the first World Military Fencing Championship where ladies competed. Until now, France has organized five editions of World Military Fencing Championship, only out done by Italy with six editions. In third place we have a tie between the Netherlands and Sweden, immediately followed by Switzerland. We need to wait and see what will happen in the next years. In total, until 2003, forty-six countries participated in the World Military Fencing Championships, with Belgium, France and the Netherlands on the top of the participants with 36 of 39 participations possible, followed by Sweden (34) and Italy (28). The CISM Fencing Family, for the moment, has two big objectives: - The first is to develop our sport CISM-wide, including broadening the World Military Fencing Championships all over the four continents, this means to add the missing continent, Asia, to the other three continents; - The second is for countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Croatia United States of America, etc, who have been absent from the World Military Championships in the last years, to join us again.