"We do not have the luxury of a neutral choice.
Either we oppose corruption or we enable it."
As a boy, I had a rather idealised view of journalists. I grew up reading Franco-Belgian comics, where the heroes consisted of brave reporters investigating villains, exposing and foiling their dastardly schemes. I would watch Christopher Reeves’s Superman split his time between saving the world and pursuing a journalistic career at The Daily Planet. It is no wonder then, that when I realised that my world was in danger, I would call upon journalists to help save it.
My world in this case being the sport of fencing.
I started my YouTube channel Slicer Sabre in 2017, from a place of great dissatisfaction. Frustrated by the lack of media coverage of the sport, I set out to address the issue myself.
I was, and maybe still am, a nobody. A mediocre fencer from a fencing desert. I wasn’t particularly well connected at a national level, never mind at an international level. An outsider peering through the back window, desperate to know what was going on inside. I would scour the internet for nuggets of information, and would do my best to put together the pieces into a somewhat coherent story.
Eventually, I would begin conducting my own interviews, and building a network of well-connected people who would help me stay informed. With as little as a polite knock, doors began to open for me.
One of the first signs that my work could reach wider audiences came when one of my videos was featured on the Fox News website. I realised this when the comments section became flooded with overtly racist remarks, so many that I had little choice but to turn off the comments section in its entirety. The video centred on an African-American fencer whose reckless actions had resulted in the disqualification of the American team. This episode made it clear to me that when the mainstream media does cover our sport, it won’t always be for the right reasons.
Nevertheless, it was to the large publications that I turned to, when in the run-up to the 2024 Summer Olympics, it became apparent that the sport was, and still is, facing an existential threat.
The villains in this story are as cartoonish as the ones in my childhood comics: a toad-faced oligarch with his reptilian lackey; a jovial referee with his bumbling idiot of a henchman; a bratty rich kid with his mafioso enforcer of a coach.
Jens Weinreich
The brazenness of their misdeeds and their shameless arrogance would make any fictional antagonist blush. Maybe it is excusable then, that I hoped to find equally cartoonish heroes- selfless, hard working people who fight for truth and justice.
I reached out to journalists, as many as I could.
Most ignored me.
Some replied with a few questions, and maybe even published a tepid article.
With only a couple of notable exceptions, almost none of the journalists I encountered were interested in doing any work on this story; any information had to be served up for them on a platter, and they certainly weren’t going to dig for any themselves.
So, alongside a fellow fencing Youtuber, Andrew Fischl (Cyrus of Chaos), I began to use my platform to draw attention to the many issues that plague our sport.
There are many valid concerns about the role of social media in modern society, but it is undeniable that it has given power to people like myself.
Mainstream media outlets are no longer the sole gatekeepers of truth; anyone with enough dedication can build their own platform and get their voice heard. Not only can my videos reach hundreds of thousands of viewers, they also reach the specific people who need to see them the most, namely the corrupt officials and administrators.
But vigilantes such as myself have limitations. I have no formal training in any of the skills that a journalist is supposed to have. Some of these are soft skills: how to approach potential sources, how to know who to trust, knowing what questions to ask and how to phrase them. Other skills are more technical: analysing documents and protecting oneself from potential lawsuits.
These limitations are only part of the problem. The bigger issue is independence.
I am now employed as a full time fencing coach. I have students, colleagues, and friends that I might put at risk of retaliation for their association with me. How am I to be objective when discussing a world in which I am so heavily entwined?
An independent journalist who is able to talk with both sides of a disagreement, will have a much clearer view of the objective truth.
Jens Weinreich
Jens Weinreich
Jens Weinreich
That is not to say that I, or any other, should simply stand by and wait for some outside force to save us. In fact, I am becoming increasingly frustrated by the inaction of my peers.
After any refereeing incident or organisational failing, I receive messages from fencers and coaches nudging me to shed light on the particular controversies that happen to affect them.
Off the record, fencers will readily voice their frustrations, but whenever I suggest voicing these thoughts publicly, I always get the same response:
"It’s too risky."
I no longer find this excuse to be credible. What is really meant by this is that for them, the status quo is satisfactory. Even if their egos crave for more public recognition, they can still afford to travel around the world to compete, they still get enough support from their sports ministry, or more likely, their wealthy parents. They are perfectly content to be the big fish in a small pond.
Even when shown examples where in other sports, athletes have collaborated and pushed back against the status quo in order to create for themselves more favourable conditions, fencers show little enthusiasm for fighting for even their own interests. They expect somebody else to fix everything for them, and they would prefer to claim powerlessness than to admit to their indifference.
This indifference leads to compliance, and compliance with the corrupt is akin to complicity.
Jens Weinreich
The frustrating reality is that we are not powerless.
I first voiced my concerns for the integrity of fencing referees in 2021. Prior to this, any such concerns voiced online were met with scepticism or even ridicule.
"Who are you to question the judgment of such a highly qualified official?"
However, thanks to the work of myself and others, the narrative has changed significantly. Such appeals to authority no longer hold the same power, and there is now a heightened awareness of both the potential and real corruption in our sport.
I know that the pressure that we put on corrupt officials makes them uncomfortable. They hide where the cameras won’t find them, hire lawyers to send threatening letters, and publish self-fellating press releases declaring their commitments to "transparency and good governance".
In this Trumpian post-truth era, it is easy to feel powerless against the shameless autocrats who dictate our lives, but a portion of this powerlessness is self-imposed. If we work together, whistleblowers with journalists, we can make a difference.
Knowing this, we must stress the following point: silence and passivity or not neutral positions. Those of you who bemoan the misdeeds of others yet do nothing to oppose them, know that you are complicit in their actions.
We do not have the luxury of a neutral choice.
Either we oppose corruption or we enable it.
All information will of course be treated confidentially. You can send me encrypted emails via Proton. Let's discuss how to proceed.
