When to watch wheelchair fencing during the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games

The wheelchair fencing competition will be held from Tuesday, Sept. 3 to Saturday, Sept. 7 during the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.

Athletes’ wheelchairs remain in a fixed position. Fencers cannot move freely up and down the piste, instead they must face their opponent in an up-close-and-personal bout.

Just like Olympic fencing, athletes compete individually in foil, epee and sabre, as well as team events in foil and epee.

Athletes are divided into two Paralympic categories. Category A fencers have displayed good control of their trunks, while Category B fencers have an impairment which impacts their trunk or fencing arm.

Venue

Wheelchair fencing will take up residency inside Paris' iconic Grand Palais, which sits adjacent to other monuments of the city such as the magnificent Pont Alexandre III bridge and the wide swaths of greenery at the Esplanade des Invalides.

Rendering of the exterior of the Grand Palais during the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Paris 2024

Events

  • Epee category A (women’s, men’s)
  • Epee category B (women’s, men’s)
  • Team epee (women’s, men’s)
  • Foil category A (women’s, men’s)
  • Foil category B (women’s, men’s)
  • Team foil (women’s, men’s)
  • Sabre category A (women’s, men’s)
  • Sabre category B (women’s, men’s)

Competition Schedule

Wheelchair Fencing at the 2024 Paris Paralympics
Date Session Time (ET)
September 3 Session 1
Session 2
7a-12n
2p-5:10p
September 4 Session 1
Session 2
3a-10:20a
12:30p-4:40p
September 5 Session 1
Session 2
4a-9:20a
11:30a-5p
September 6 Session 1
Session 2
3a-10:20a
12:30p-4:40p
September 7 Session 1
Session 2
4a-9:20a
11:30a-5p

Team USA: Wheelchair fencers to watch

Six athletes, three men and three women, will represent the United States in wheelchair fencing at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. All six will compete in both individual and team events.

The women's team will be led by South Carolina native Ellen Geddes, making her second Paralympics appearance. A former competitive equestrian athlete, Geddes took up wheelchair fencing after a 2011 car accident. While at a rehabilitation center, she tried wheelchair basketball and skeet shooting, but “fencing was the one that stuck," she said. Geddes will be joined by a pair of Paralympic first-timers in Victoria Isaacson of Poughkeepsie, New York, and Jataya Taylor of Aurora, Colorado. 

All three U.S. men will be making their Paralympic debuts in Paris. Bellbrook, Ohio's Byron Branch, Sandy, Utah's Garrett Schoonover, and Ellicott City, Maryland's Noah Hanssen comprise the team.