Sabre, Individual, Women

The Russian fencers dominated the individual sabre tournament. Of the country’s three competitors, two met in the final and the third, Yekaterina Dyachenko was stopped in the quarter-final by her compatriot and the eventual gold medalist Yana Yegoryan. In addition to Yegoryan and top seeded Sofiya Velikaya, the final four fencers comprised second seeded Olha Kharlan from Ukraine, and the surprise semi-finalist Manon Brunet from France. In the semis, Velikaya edged out Brunet by a narrow 15–14 margin and Yegoryan defeated two-time world champion Kharlan 15-9. Kharlan went on to repeat her bronze medal from London 2012 by beating Brunet 15–10.

A dramatic final saw the reigning World Champion Velikaya leading 8–5 halfway through the bout. But Yegoryan slowly closed the gap to 12–12, before Velikaya came back to lead 14–13, and was just one point from victory. But Yegoryan kept her nerves scoring the final two points to claim a 15–14 victory. For the second consecutve Olympics, Velikaya lost the final and had to once again be content with silver.