Bay Area Native Wins Silver Medal In Fencing At Rio Olympics

PALO ALTO, CA – A Stanford University junior and San Francisco native won the silver medal in individual foil fencing for Team USA at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.

Alexander Massialas, 22, beat Richard Kruse of Great Britain 15-9 in the semifinals, but fell 15-11 to Daniele Garozzo in the gold medal bout.

Kruse went on to lose the bronze to Timur Safin of Russia.

Massialas went in to the summer games as the top ranked fencer in the world. He previously participated in the 2012 Olympic Games in London, when he came in 13th in the individual fencing competition, Team USA
officials said.

When he competed in the 2012 games in London, Massialas was the youngest member of the U.S. team from any sport. He graduated from the Drew School in San Francisco in 2012.

Massialas has been fencing since he was 7 years old and also enjoys playing soccer, basketball and the xylophone.

His father, Greg Massialas, represented Team USA in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games and is one of his son's coaches at the Rio games.

Alexander Massialas' younger sister, 19-year-old Sabrina Massialas, is also a high-level fencer and won a gold medal at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.

• Also see: Stanford Researchers Unearth 5,000-Year-Old Beer Recipe

--Bay City News/Image/video courtesy of Stanford University