“Shame for the country”
During the award ceremony: scandal at U23 European Championship in fencing
04/27/2025 – 1:13 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
At the U23 European Championship in the fencing, the award ceremony ends with a scandal. The behavior of the silver medalists is criticized.
The U23 European Championship in Fencing 2025 in Tallinn will not only be remembered because of the sporting achievements. The Swiss youth team of the men won silver and had to admit defeated in the final of Israel with 34:45. After the game, the congratulations between the two teams were still in the usual framework – but there was an incident at the award ceremony.
During the playing of the Israeli national anthem, the Swiss fencers Ian Hauri, Théo Brochard, Jonathan Fuhrimann and Sven Vineis stayed upright and did not turn aside like the other teams. So far, it had been common at this European Championship to turn off the gold medalist with the hymn.
The behavior of the Swiss is now criticized. Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was outraged on the X platform. He first praised the Israeli team and the third -placed Italians, then he commented on the Swiss: “Shame on the Swiss team for his disrespectful behavior. They do not know how to lose and have behaved in a way that is a shame for them and the country that they should represent.”
Swiss Fencing, the national association, commented on Instagram on Sunday morning. The statement states: “Swiss Fencing has no understanding that his team has misused the award ceremony for a political manifestation.” At the same time, the association emphasized that the Swiss fencers had “congratulated” their Israeli opponents immediately after the match.
The management of Swiss Fencing also confirmed the basic attitude that sporting competitions should not be used as a platform for political messages. “It is regrettable that the wrong behavior of our athletes discredited the sporting success of the Swiss team with three medals at these U23 European Championships,” said the association. The Israeli team finally received congratulations on the gold medal again.
The Israeli fencing association also commented on the incident and emphasized the actual purpose of sporting competitions. A spokesman said to the Newsportal Ynet: “Sport should bring people together, not separate.” The entire Israeli team was “disappointed” by the behavior of the Swiss and regretted that a sporty triumph turned into a moment of political tensions.