Rio 2016: Armenian Yana Egorian Wins Fencing Gold for Russia

RIO DE JANEIRO — Russian-Armenian Yana Egorian won gold medal in women’s individual sabre competition at Rio Olympics, beating her own teammate and the number one fencer in the world, Sofya Velikaya in the final match.

It was a hard fought battle with both fencers consistently trading points. Velikaya, at one point, had built a sizable lead and looked like she might be leaving with gold around her neck.

Undeterred, Egorian scored five consecutive points to put herself in a position to win. Down a point, she tied the match at 14 and registered the final touch to secure the top spot. In the aftermath, the joyous 22 year old collapsed to the piste as she came to terms with her victory.

Egorian was born on 20 December 1993 in Yerevan, Armenia and moved to Russia with her family when she was 6 years old.

Asked about her Armenian roots by Mediamax Egorian stated that “I have lived in Armenia until I was six. I don’t speak Armenian at home, but I understand the language. I have Armenian friends, but they all live in Russia. I think not many people in Armenia know about my success”.