Besbes, Azza

Born in 1990 in Abu Dhabi ( United Arab Emirates ), where her parents lived at that time; her father, Ali Besbes, used to play basketball, and then became a teacher of physical education, and her mother, Hayet bin Ghazi, used to do rapier fencing herself, and then became an international judge. All the children in this family - one son and three daughters - took up fencing.

Azza began fencing from the age of 6. At first she fenced on rapiers, but then switched to a saber. Until 2005, she trained in one of the clubs in Tunisia , and when it closed due to lack of funds, she began training with the national team of Tunisia. In 2007, she went to study in France for a scholarship from the Tunisian Ministry of Sports and Youth, where she trained with the French national team.

In 2008, she took part in the Beijing Olympics , where she took 7th place in the individual championship. In 2009 she became the champion of Africa. At the 2010 African Championships she won a silver medal. In 2011, she again became the champion of Africa. In 2012, she became the champion of Africa, and at the Olympic Games in London she became the 9th in the individual championship. In 2013, she again became the champion of Africa, and won the bronze medal of the Mediterranean Games. In 2014, she again became the champion of Africa.

In 2017, at the World Championships, Azza first became the winner of world championships: she took second place in a personal saber, losing to Ukrainian Olga Harlan in the final. Thus, for the first time, a fencer from Tunisia reached the final of the World Cup (before that, representatives of this country won two bronze medals).

• Azza Besbes - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com
• Profile on the website of the European Fencing Confederation