The women's individual épée semi final became a notable controversy at the 2012 Olympics when a time-keeping error by a games volunteer helped German Britta Heidemann beat South Korea's Shin A-lam. Despite there being two hundredths of a second remaining in the match, the timer could only be reset to a whole second after the mistake. The extra time was enough for the German to score a winning attack and proceed to the final.[1]
Qualification was primarily based on the ind. official rankings as at 2 April 2012, with further individual places available at four zonal qualifying tournaments.
