The fencing competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro took place from 6 to 14 August at the Carioca Arena 3 inside the Barra Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca. Around 212 fencers (an equal distribution between men and women; of which, eight fencers came from the host nation Brazil) competed in 10 events -- six individual and four team.
Similar to 2008 and 2012, the International Fencing Federation maintained the format of ten events with a rotation system for team events. As a result, the men's team sabre and the women's team foil were dropped from the program only at these Games.
Qualification was primarily based on the FIE official rankings as of 4 April 2016, with further individual places available at four zonal qualifying tournaments.