Trailblazer Scruggs aims to inspire young, black fencers

After Lauren Scruggs clinched the gold medal for the United States in the women's foil team competition on Aug 1, the fencer threw off her mask and spun around, her eyes and mouth wide open.

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It was the team's first gold in the event, and it could not have been sweeter as they beat world No. 1 Italy 45-39 in the final.

But it was not the first big moment for Scruggs at the Paris Olympics.

On July 28, the 21-year-old, in her Games debut, became the first black American woman to win an individual Olympic fencing medal for the US when she clinched a silver in the individual event. She beat Singapore's Amita Berthier in the table of 32.

"Fencing has largely, historically, been a non-black sport," she had said previously.

"So I hope to inspire young black girls to get into fencing and to think that they can have a place in the sport. I just hope that more people who look like me, little girls like me, feel they have a place in the sport."