The United States Fencing Association (USFA) is the national governing body for the sport of fencing in the United States. The USFA was founded in 1891 as the Amateur Fencers League of America (AFLA) by a group of New York fencers seeking independence from the Amateur Athletic Union. The AFLA changed its name to the United States Fencing Association in 1981.
The USFA was incorporated as a non-profit corporation in Pennsylvania in 1964 and in Colorado in 1993 in compliance with the Amateur Sports Act. It opened its national office at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado in August 1982. The national office moved from the Olympic Training Center to downtown Colorado Springs in 2002. The USFA's first full-time Executive Director was hired in 1983.
The USFA is affiliated with the Féderation Internationale d'Escrime (FIE), the international federation for fencing founded in Paris in 1913.
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The USFA tracks ratings for its members. Ratings are a system of classification for USFA fencers; they are primarily used to seed tournaments, but are also considered to be (very) broad indicators of skill. When a fencer first joins the USFA, he or she will have a classification of "U", or "Unrated." [1] Fencers may increase their classification—from U to E, and then up to A—by placing in USFA-sanctioned tournaments. A tournament must have a certain amount of competitors, and those competitors must maintain a certain ratio of classifications, for the top fencers to be eligible for ratings.[2]