The first gold medal in fencing at the Rio Olympics was awarded Saturday evening, and the gold medal match included an incredible comeback.
Hungary’s Emese Szasz erased a four-point deficit in the second period, beating Italy’s Rosella Fiamingo 15-13 to win the gold medal. Hungary has won more medals in fencing than in any other Summer Olympic sport in which they’ve competed as a nation, and Szasz’s gold gives the nation 84 Olympic medals (36 gold) in its history in fencing. Fiamingo reeled off four consecutive points after Szasz pulled even at six in the second set, and at that point the Italian appeared poised to win gold after winning consecutive world championships in this discipline in 2014 and 2015.
But Szasz remained composed, pulling even at 12 apiece early in the third set and going on to earn three of the match’s final four points. On the deciding sequence both Szasz and Fiamingo earned a point, but with the scoring being 14-12 at the time that brought an end to Fiamingo’s gold medal hopes.
China’s Yiwen Sun earned the bronze medal with a 15-13 win over France’s Lauren Rembi in the bronze medal match.
