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When Valentina Vezzali was cutting her teeth as a cadet she used to dream of beating Italy's top female foil fencer.

"Hang in there, I would say to myself, hang in there," she writes on her official website. "Giovanna Trillini is Giovanna Trillini that everybody knows, but one day you will be able to fence like only she can do. And that day came."

Both emerged from the relative obscurity of Jesi, a small town of 40,000 noted for its sleepy atmosphere and medieval walls. Both would cruise to Olympic victory and vie for top honors as the best woman to wield a foil in Italy - if not the world.

Valentina Vezzali,33,will continue to lead Italy's campaign at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Four years later in Atlanta it was a different story. The young apprentice narrowly missed out on individual gold and Trillini settled for bronze. As teammates, they blazed to glory and topped the podium in the team foil.

Vezzali then went one better in Sydney, stamping her dominance to capture both gold.

Outside of the Olympics her records are equally mind-boggling, she won 87 of 90 bouts in 1999, three world titles and six world championship medals in the foil, ranking as world No 1 for eight years since 1996. The list goes on.

The dramatic final between the two on a sun-splayed beach in Athens was a highlight of the 2004 Summer Games, cementing Vezzali's rank as world No 1 and possibly the best female fencer of all time. Now this healthy rivalry is bound for Beijing.

"I think the Italian women are favorites for the Beijing Games. Even right now they have a very strong team, but which medals they will take I don't know," Ioan Pop, a director at the International Fencing Federation (FIE), told China Daily.

"They have a very long tradition of fencing and excellent coaches," he said. "It was a very, very special generation with Vezzali and Trillini, who started their careers at 15 or 16. They were exceptionally talented."

Italy's male and female fencers now have a two-Olympiad stranglehold on the sport after edging past rivals Russia and France respectively.

They have bucked the nation's medal skid in the last decade, taking three gold from each of the last three Games to rank inside the top two at fencing.

While American women tend to dominate at saber grand prix events, the Italians own Olympic foil fencing, which has been a women's medal event since the 1924 Games and, like epee, uses the point of the sword only to score.

In the early 20th century, all the glory belonged to the men. Italy had what seemed like a reservoir of natural talent that saw it produce legendary figures like Italo Santelli and Nedo Nadi.

Vezzali, Trillini and their cohorts have produced a turn-of-the-century shift to make this millennium more of an all-girl affair.

Vezzali, now 33, took time off to have a baby just over a year ago but is 100 percent for the Beijing Games. Trillini is expected to join her. Margherita Granbassi, who beat Vezzali 7-6 to take gold at last year's World Fencing Championships and 24-year-old Elisa Di Francisca make Italy even more of a threat.

Despite this array of talent, recent results suggest the women will have their work cut out in China.

Last year, Russia won the world championship team event and South Korea edged past Italy at the World Cup in Las Vegas.

Fourth-seeded Nam Hyun-Hee swatted away a late comeback by Trillini to steal the World Cup title with a 12-11 win. Vezzali never made it past the last 16, beaten by the same one-point margin by 2005 Junior World Champion Emily Cross of the United States.

Next month's cadet and junior World Cup should help clarify who has strength in terms of new, developing talent.