Team USA has won its first fencing medal in over thirty years at the Rio Olympics— thanks to Alexander Massialas, a foil fencer from San Francisco.
Massialas won the silver medal at the Rio 2016 Games.
He enrolled Stanford University on a fencing scholarship in the fall of 2012 and closed his freshman season by winning the 2013 NCAA title in individual men’s foil.
He repeated this feat in 2015 and took a year off from studies from Stanford to train for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Fencing is a family affair. Massialas grew up in a fencing household. His father Greg Massialas, who emigrated from Greece when he was only ten years old is a legend in the sport.
He was a three-time Olympian in the 1980s, a referee and coach who is among the most influential fencing figures in American history.
