Fuchshuber and fencing have a long tradition: What seems self-evident today was a small revolution on the planche in the 1980s: instead of stiff woven fabrics, Friedrich Fuchshuber brought elastic knitted fabrics into play – just as stab-resistant, but much more mobile. Coaches and athletes were quickly convinced.
The tests for product testing at that time were improvised, but effective: a sabre was clamped and hammered into it with the textile sample. After many improvements, there was no longer a hole in the knitted fabric. So, the bar was set. Together with the Denkendorf Textile Research Institute, Fuchshuber developed a test method and thus contributed to the introduction of the puncture resistance of 800 Newtons, which is still valid today. If you want to make fencing safe, you sometimes have to take the first stab yourself.
"There's no such thing as impossible"
Maurice Schmidt was far from being born at that time. He was born in Laichingen in 1999 with a congenital malformation of the legs, dysmelia. This has never slowed down his sporting ambitions, on the contrary: After table tennis and football, both as a pedestrian, he started wheelchair fencing at the age of 12. After just two years, he was on the podium at the German championships. The now 25-year-old is a multiple German champion in wheelchair fencing and crowned his sporting career in 2024 with the Paralympic victory in sabre fencing. "There's no such thing as impossible," is the athlete's motto.
Not a step back
Maurice Schmidt studies environmental engineering at the University of Stuttgart and trains with the weapon four times a week, plus twice in the weight room. Fencing is pure focus for him: "We wheelchair fencers are always within reach of the opponent. We can never take a step back, unlike the pedestrians."
Anyone who observes Maurice Schmidt training in his home club in a sports hall in Böblingen immediately understands what he means: The fencers' wheelchairs are fixed to a frame on the ground, the distance between the opponents' wheelchairs is measured by their arm length. As much as the fencer leans back in his wheelchair, he cannot escape the radius of the opponent.
Fencing at eye level - with protection from Fuchshuber Techno-Tex
Whether epee, foil or sabre - the weapons are sharp, the hits fast, for pedestrians as well as wheelchair fencers. The right fencing clothing protects against stabs, bruises and abrasions, and if possible, without constricting. Fuchshuber materials – including Dyneema or UHMWPE (ultra high molecular weighted polyethylene) – are used in jackets, trousers and gloves and ensure safety for fencers. That has to be in order to be able to concentrate completely on the duel. UHMWPE is also the material used to achieve the classic pure white effect.
Sportswear is also a bit of everyday clothing
And how does the sporty protective clothing wear? Now Maurice Schmidt answers with a laugh: "Sweating is part of it; we just throw our jacket and pants in the washing machine."
Protective clothing is "only" used for athletes in training and competition - and therefore quite regularly: in addition to functional and fencing-proof, it must therefore also be flexible.