Leading through the first 1000 meters of the women’s cycling team pursuit gold medal match, the US women’s dreams of an Olympic gold medal did not come to fruition because of a historic effort put forth by Great Britain.
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The 30-year-old athlete became the first US athlete to compete at the Olympic Games wearing a hijab, a veil commonly worn by Muslim women. The fifth ranked Polish team tried to make a comeback against the Americans by cutting the lead to 35-28 before the eighth period of play. The No. 4 ranked saber fencer in the world, Zagunis closed it out for the saber team with a, 45-43, victory to advance to face the top seed Russian Federation in the semifinals.
It was a double gold for Russia’s Yana Egorian who had claimed the women’s individual title last week, ahead of teammate Sofiya Velikaya who won silver. Zagunis lost just two bouts, out-touching opponents 48-36 across all three matches.
The 30-year-old fencer took the bronze medal for the United States during the team saber competition. Zagunis and Muhammad won 10 of the next 19 touches to give Team USA a 15-11 lead.
The Americans earned the bronze with a clinical win over the Italians, mirroring the achievement of their men’s foil team a day earlier.
Amanda Polk, a 2008 Notre Dame graduate and four-time All-American with the Irish is a member of the United States Women’s Eight that powered to victory (6:01:49) in the Grand Finale Saturday morning at Lagao Stadium in Rio Di Janeiro, Brazil.
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The 4-woman USA team – which also included double Olympic champion Dagmara Wozniak, Mariel Zagunis and Monica Aksamit – beat Italy 45-30 to seal third place and the first women’s medal in fencing for the Americans in Rio.
