For Nick Itkin (Los Angeles, Calif.), it’s a matching set. After earning a team bronze in Tokyo 2020, the talented 24-year-old added an individual bronze to his trophy case on Monday at the historic Grand Palais in Paris.
“Amazing,” Itkin says of the setting for fencing. “This is the best venue I’ve ever competed in. So much history, and the French fans are real fans. “This is what the sport needs. So thank you so much to the French fans, because it’s an honor to be able to compete in front of you.”
Itkin lost in the semifinals and entered a pressure-packed fence-off for Bronze, where he defeated Japan’s Kazuki Iimura, 15-12. “It’s a blur,” he says. “It’s so fast, but it’s a moment of relief.” With that bronze in the men’s foil individual event, Itkin becomes just the sixth American man — and the second since 1960 (Alexander Massialas, 2016 silver) — to win an individual Olympic medal in foil.
And with Lee Kiefer and Lauren Scruggs winning Olympic gold and silver on Sunday, this is the first time in U.S. history that U.S. men and women have earned individual medals at the same Olympic games.
Men’s Foil Individual
Round of 32
Gerek Meinhardt def. Haiwei Chen (CHN), 15-7
Alexander Massialas def. Jeremy Fafa Keryhuel (CIV), 15-3
Nick Itkin def. Alex Tofalides (CYP), 15-10
Round of 16
Gerek Meinhardt lost to Enzo Lefort (FRA), 15-10
Alexander Massialas lost to Kazuki Iimura (JPN), 15-8
Nick Itkin def. Abdelrahman Hussein Tolba (EGY), 15-8
Round of 8
Nick Itkin def. Guillaume Bianchi (ITA), 15-14
Semifinals
Nick Itkin lost to Filippo Macchi (ITA), 15-11
Bronze Medal Bout
Nick Itkin def. Kazuki Iimura (JPN), 15-12