Georgian Fencing Federation President Merab Bazadze Apologizes for His Son at the Paris Olympics

President of the Georgian Fencing Federation Merab Bazadze explains the emotional outburst of his son, sabre fencer Sandro Bazadze, with a nervous breakdown and refutes the accusations against the FIE referees.

As a reminder, Sandro Bazadze, a member of the Georgian national saber fencing team, who was considered one of the favorites of the Paris event, lost in the 1/8 finals to Egypt’s Mohamed Amer and was extremely dissatisfied with the refereeing. After the bout, in which Sandro’s opponent led most of the time, the sabre fencer criticized Vanesa Cichon, a referee from Spain. Bazadze thought he had landed the decisive blow before his opponent did, but the referee awarded the point to Amer after a video review. Sandro continued to voice his frustration with the refereeing after the decision was announced, speaking harshly to the press about the referee. He stated, among other things, that the refereeing was biased. 

The bout sparked a heated discussion on YouTube and Reddit. Commentators did not see any violations on the part of the referee but noted the Georgian athlete’s overly emotional behavior.

Shortly thereafter, however, the Bazadze case was presented in a report on fencing on the German TV channel ARD as evidence of systemic manipulation by fencing referees, allegedly encouraged by the International Fencing Federation (FIE).

This was refuted by Sandro Bazadze’s own father, Merab, who heads the Georgian Fencing Federation. In his statement, he noted that he “has always believed and still believes that the International Fencing Federation has taken extremely effective measures to increase the transparency of refereeing at international competitions, including the ubiquitous video refereeing system and the automated system of selecting referees immediately before the bout.”

He also apologized for his son’s behaviour, attributing his “emotional breakdown” to “psychological shock” and “excessive emotional strain over the lost fight at the Olympic Games.”

Merab Bazadze called on “journalists and bloggers to stop using this emotional episode of fencing life for unfair and undeserved attacks on the International Fencing Federation and its leadership.”

The event, from which Sandro Bazadze was eliminated, ended with the victory of South Korea’s saber fencer Oh Sang-uk, who became the first Olympic champion in men’s sabre singles in the history of his country.

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