To be an Olympic athlete, you need to be really good at math. Fencing is a bit like rock, paper, scissors. You can attack, parry, or counter-attack, but every move has a move that counters it, so there’s no single best move, just like there’s no best hand in rock, paper, scissors. If you’re always playing rock or you’re always parrying, then you become predictable and your opponent will defeat you. Mathematically, the optimal strategy in rock, paper, scissors is to use any of the three moves at random with equal probability. If both players do this, the odds of winning are 50%, but you might try to tip the odds in your favor by anticipating what they’ll do next or trying to lure them into a trap. That’s what makes Olympic fencing much more dramatic and complicated. It’s also a game of the mind.