Palisades High School alumnus Nick Itkin and fellow United States Fencing Team members Gerek Meinhardt, Alexander Massialias and Race Imboden defeated host Japan 45-31 in the men’s team foil bronze medal match at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday. Following a narrow loss to the Russian Olympic Committee in the semifinals, the USA men rallied for their second-ever Olympic medal in the event (Team USA beat Italy for the bronze in Rio de Janeiro in 2016).
Competing in his first Olympics, Itkin has already won two individual NCAA titles and two team championships at the University of Notre Dame. The 2017 Pali High graduate has appeared on the Palisadian-Post’s Athletes of the Year list multiple times and is emerging as one of the sport’s top foil fencers, having been first at the Junior Worlds in 2018 and taking the senior circuit by storm with a bronze medal in Bonn, Germany later that year to become the first American fencer to win individual junior world, USA Fencing Division I and NCAA championship titles in the same season.
Now with three World Cup medals as a senior on his resume, including gold in Paris, Itkin rose to No. 6 in the United States during his senior year at Palisades. He is coached by his father Michael, a former elite fencer from Ukraine. The 21-year-old out of the Los Angeles International Fencing Club also competed in the foil individual competition in Tokyo, outdueling Russian Anton Borodachev in his first bout before losing his second, 15-13, to Kirill Borodachev. In the team competition, each team has three members and one in reserve, competing in a round-robin format.
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