Lightsaber

Lightsaber Fighting Is Officially a Sport, Finally

Photo: NBC / Contributor (Getty Images)

If you’re at all into Star Wars, at one point in your life you engaged in a lightsaber duel with your friends. You imagined yourself harnessing the light or dark side of the Force and struck your foe down just as you’ve seen in the films. It’s about time someone made this wonderfully nerdy event as a real sport.

The French Fencing Federation has recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport and, hell yeah, where can we sign up?! The organization recently told the Associated Press of their decision, bringing as much new hope to our galaxy as Star Wars: Episode IV did.

The efforts by the FFF regarding lightsaber duels stem from France’s desire to get you off the couch, literally. They hope that by propping the duels as a sport, it will encourage those stuck on video games to take up a lightsaber hilt and engage in physical combat. Drop your controllers, Fortnite players, there are Sith to destroy.

“With young people today, it’s a real public health issue. They don’t do any sport and only exercise with their thumbs,” said the federation’s secretary general, Serge Aubailly, according to the AP. “It’s becoming difficult to (persuade them to) do a sport that has no connection with getting out of the sofa and playing with one’s thumbs. That is why we are trying to create a bond between our discipline and modern technologies, so participating in a sport feels natural.”

While you might already consider yourself a pro when swinging a lightsaber, there are certain rules you need to abide by.

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We’re excited about this new development and are figuring out ways to get to France now. If anyone has a place we can crash, we’d appreciate it. We can pay you in either Republic credits or Sith bucks, whichever you prefer.

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