Congratulations to US Olympic medalists!
DC Fencers Club salutes Team USA as they return from a fruitful Rio 2016 Olympics.
The U.S. Olympic Fencing Team ended the Rio Olympic Games with one of its most successful results in history, bringing home four medals as nine of its 17 athletes stood on the podium over the course of the Games.
Not only was this the third best result for USA Fencing in the history of the Games, but Team USA ended the Games tied for second in the fencing medal count with Hungary and Italy.
Among the U.S. highlights:
- The U.S. Men’s Foil Team won its first medal since the 1932 Olympic Games with a bronze in Rio.
- Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, Calif.) and Daryl Homer (Bronx, N.Y.) won the first individual fencing medals at the Games for U.S. men since 1984 with silvers in men’s foil and men’s saber, respectively.
- Massialas’s silver medal was the first for a U.S. men’s foil fencer since 1932.
- Homer’s silver medal result was the best finish for a U.S. individual men’s saber fencer in 112 years.
- Massialas became the first U.S. man to win two medals at the same Olympic Games since 1932.
- The Rio Olympic Games marked the first time since 1904 that the U.S. Olympic Fencing Team has had more than one male athlete win an individual medal at the Games.
- The U.S. Women’s Saber Team won its second Olympic bronze medal in the event’s second appearance at the Olympic Games. Only the United States and Ukraine have won medals at both Games.
- Mariel Zagunis (Beaverton, Ore.) earned her fourth Olympic medal in Rio with the U.S. Women’s Saber Team’s bronze medal finish, becoming the first U.S. fencer to stand on the podium at three Olympic Games and the only woman in USA Fencing to hold four Olympic medals.
- Ibtihaj Muhammad (Maplewood, N.J.) became the first U.S. woman to compete at the Olympic Games in a hijab and the first to win a medal at the Games when she helped the U.S. Women’s Saber Team win bronze.
A special salute to Capitol Division member Kat Holmes, who represented Team USA in Women’s Epee in her first Olympics.
For more information, visit usfencing.org.