Stanford's Alexander Massialas had rallied once to eventually reach the gold medal match in the individual men's foil Sunday at the Rio Games.
But when he fell behind Italian Daniele Garozzo in the finale, the world's top-ranked fencer didn't have enough left in a 15-11 defeat.
Massialas rallied from six points down in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals and then marched in the final with confidence.
But the San Francisco fencer gave up six straight points to No. 11 Garozzo and fell too deep into a hole against a talented foe. Massialas, 22, held off three match points before the Italian made a beautiful lunge that the American couldn't escape.
It still was a historic moment for Massialas, who won the first individual Olympic medal for the U.S. men's team since Peter Westbrook's bronze at the Los Angeles Games in 1984.
It also was only the third individual men's foil medal in U.S. history, the last coming 56 years ago in Rome.
Massialas' San Francisco training partner Gerek Meinhardt was upset by Great Britain's Richard Kruse 15-13 in the quarterfinals. The No. 4-ranked Meinhardt would have faced Massialas in the semifinals had he won.
Another fencer from the Massialas Fencing Center, James Andrew Davis, was upset in the round of 16 by Russia's Timur Safin 15-13.
