About Fencing
Historically, fencing is a european martial art. Many people have forgotten that we had our own martial arts in the West long before the rise in popularity of eastern martial arts like Kendo, Karate and Tae Kwan Do.
Nowadays, fencing is an exciting and dynamic sport, testing the athelete's brain as well as their physique.
Fencing weapons and target areas: 
The foil is a light thrusting weapon with a flexible square-section blade. Modern foils have a safety button on the tip
The epee is also a thrusting weapon, but has a heavier and less flexible triangular-section blade.
The sabre is a cutting weapon, and has a flat-section blade. The sabre generally has a rounded tip to help it glance off jackets and masks easily.
All sport fencing weapons are rebated (blunted) for safety.
The different weapons have different target areas:
In foil, the target area is the torso. The arms, legs and head do not count as legitimate targets. Foil is a thrusting weapon, so that legitimate hits can only be obtained by scoring a touch with the point of the weapon. Foil fencing is controlled by right of way, where the fencer starting their attack gains a right-of-way, allowing their hit to gain priority over a last-minute counter-attack.
The Epee target area is the whole body, including feet, head and hands. Like foil, it is a thrusting
weapon, but there is no 'right of way' - whoever hits first usually scores.
Sabre is a cutting weapon - hits are made with a cutting motion with the edge of the blade, rather than a thrust (although thrusts are permitted). The target area is everything above the waist, including head and hands. Some say this was a development from mounted cavalry training, to 'kill the man, and spare the horse'!
Fencing has been an Olympic sport since 1896, when the sword was still considered a valid military weapon, and fencing itself was considered to be a well-established tradition with centuries of custom. Fencing today is one of the only 6 sports to have appeared in every single modern Olympic Games. The winners of the 1896 Fencing Contests were 'Amateur Fencing' (foil) - Gravellotte (France); 'Amateur Sabre' Georgiadis (Greece) and 'Foils for Fencing Masters' - Pyrgos (Greece). The Epee wasn't introduced until the following games in Paris in 1900. The earliest English Olympic medal was achieved by Gladys Davies, who won Silver in Ladies' Foil in 1924. I wasn't until 1960 that an English man achieved Silver... and we've only ever won 1 Gold: Gillian Sheen won Ladies Foil in 1956.
Nowadays, to make modern Olympic Fencing more appealing to the audience, electronic apparatus is used to determine valid hits, and clear polycarbonate visors may replace the traditional wire mesh.