Elisa Di Francisca has failed to make it two in a row. After individual foil gold, in addition to gold in the team event, in London 2012, the Italian athlete was not able to overcome the Russian Inna Deriglazova but still takes home a prestigious silver medal. In the final, after the Italian gained an early advantage, it was the Russian who slowly overtook the Italian with six points in a row, bringing the score to 7-3 in her favour. Elisa (photo Ferraro-Mezzelani/GMT) mounted a comeback using all her skills to claw back 3 points. Deriglazova, however, did not give up and eventually prevailed 12-11.
However, from the very first contest Elisa had proved her superiority. A 15-8 win against Lin (Hong Kong) to kick things off, followed by an authoritative 15-6 victory against Poland's Lyczbinska and then the stern challenge from the Chinese Liu (15-10) opened up the doors to the semi-final, where she overcame Tunisia's Boubakri (12-9).
Her Olympic silver provides Italy with its eleventh medal of the 31st edition of the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.