Olympic Fencing 2016: Medal Winners and Scores After Wednesday's Results

The men's individual saber and the women's individual foil competitions took center stage on Wednesday in the fencing competition at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 

Aron Szilagyi of Hungary won the gold medal on the men's side, while Inna Deriglazova of Russia captured gold in the women's event. Here is a look at the six medalists from the two tournaments that consisted of a single-elimination format with tables of 64 competitors: 

Event	Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal
Men's Individual Saber	Aron Szilagyi (Hungary)	Daryl Homer (United States)	Junghwan Kim (South Korea)
Women's Individual Foil	Inna Deriglazova (Russia)	Elisa Di Francisca (Italy)	Ines Boubakri (Tunisia)

Men's Individual Saber

American Daryl Homer won a historic medal for his country, but he ran into a buzzsaw in the gold-medal match.

Szilagyi won the first three points and then stretched the lead to 8-4 at the end of the first period. It was essentially over after he extended the advantage to 10-4 in the third, and he put it on cruise control on the way to a 15-8 victory. Szilagyi also won the gold medal in the 2012 London Games and established himself as one of the marquee stars of the sport with another triumph on Wednesday.

Still, Homer accomplished something not seen in the United States for more than 20 years, as the national fencing team shared on Twitter:

Homer clinched a medal in the semifinal with a gutsy performance against Mojtaba Abedini of Iran. Abedini took a 6-3 lead, but Homer battled back to take a 12-9 advantage. From there, Abedini came back to tie the match three different times (12-12, 13-13 and 14-14). However, Eric Weeks of NBCOlympics.com said "Homer wouldn't be denied" as the American scored the final point.

NBC Olympics shared the ensuing celebration:

Abedini also lost the bronze-medal match against Junghwan Kim of South Korea, 15-8. Kim won the first six points of the match and never relinquished control as he earned South Korea a second medal in Rio, per Weeks.

One other notable result "really opened up" the bracket for Homer and the other medalists, as Luke Meredith of the Associated Press noted.

Weeks called Russia's Alexey Yakimenko the gold-medal favorite, but he dropped a stunner in the round of 32 against the No. 302-ranked fencer, Bulgaria's Pancho Paskov. Yakimenko won the 2015 World Championship and battled back to tie Wednesday's match at 14, but Paskov earned the final point and the subsequent upset in the critical moment.

With Yakimenko out of the way, Szilagyi, Homer and Kim took home medals.

Women's Individual Foil

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

Italy's Elisa Di Francisca entered these Olympics as the defending gold medalist from 2012 in London, but Wednesday belonged to Deriglazova in a back-and-forth battle.

Di Francisca jumped ahead 3-0 in the first period and appeared well on her way to another gold, but Deriglazova responded by winning all seven points in the second period. Di Francisca clawed back to within 12-11 in the third period but ran out of time after her late surge, and the Russian took home gold for her country.

It was a grueling test in the gold-medal match, but Deriglazova looked unbeatable in the semifinals when she ousted Russian teammate Aida Shanaeva in a rematch of the gold-medal showdown in the 2015 World Championships. Deriglazova controlled the entire semifinal bout and won in dominating fashion, 15-3.

Elsewhere, Ines Boubakri of Tunisia defeated Shanaeva, 15-11, in the bronze-medal clash, which prevented Russia from taking home two medals in Wednesday's tournament. Shanaeva looked to have overcome the semifinal loss to her teammate when she seized an early 6-1 lead, but Boubakri dictated the tempo in the second period to take a 13-11 lead before closing it out in the third.

Weeks said the victory marked Tunisia's first medal in Olympic fencing, and the International Fencing Federation shared a look at the overjoyed competitor in the aftermath:

The Americans in the women's individual foil couldn't match Homer's efforts, as Lee Kiefer and Nzingha Prescod each lost in the round of 16. Kiefer fell to China's Yongshi Liu, while Prescod dropped her match to France's Astrid Guyart.

While the United States was overmatched against a strong field of women in the foil, Homer made the Red, White and Blue proud on the men's side.

Post-Tournament Reaction

Homer discussed his mindset on Wednesday, per the Associated Press, via USA Today: “I was like 'No regrets. If I lose doing this, I'm going to lose doing this and I don't care.' And that was literally how I rolled out. If you want a medal, you have to do something big for it.”

Szilagyi talked about his approach for the gold medal bout, per the Associated Press, via USA Today: “Daryl is a very aggressive, very dynamic fencer. My strategy was to break his dynamism ... and not let him aggressively attack me.”

On the women’s side, Deriglazova ran backward in the final seconds to clinch her win. She said, “Whatever it took to do in those last two seconds, to run away, to fall down, I would do that. It didn’t matter,” per the Associated Press, via USA Today.

The only thing that did matter was the resultant gold.