RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Former Big Red fencer Greg Massialas coached the United States men's foil team that won the bonze medal by defeating Italy on Friday, Aug. 13 at the 2016 Rio Olympics. It was the first medal for the US foil squad since the 1932 Olympic Games.  Additionally, he coached his son, Alexander Massialas, to a silver medal in the individual competition.
 
The achievement is just the latest in a long line of coaching success for the former Big Red All-American. Massialas was appointed as the US foil coach at the start of the 2011-12 Olympic season and took the team from a No. 11 world ranking to a fourth place finish at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The following year, for the first time in the history of the USFA/AFLA, he led the foil team to a silver medal at the Senior World Championships. The squad went on to place first or second in every World Cup and at the end of the season, and for the first time in program history, the US foil team was ranked No. 1 in the world.  
 
Massialas, who fenced for two seasons at Cornell and was the national runner-up at the 1976 NCAA championships, was a three-time US Olympian (1980, 1984, 1988). Following his athletic career, he went on to serve as an Olympic Referee (1996), before joining the US coaching staff in in 2008.