RIO DE JANEIRO — The tears came from frustration.

Stanford’s Alexander Massialas had hoped to celebrate a long day as the first American man to win a gold medal in fencing in the modern era of the Olympics.

The tears came from love.

Massialas found himself in a long, poignant embrace with his mother after the world’s top-ranked fencer won a historic silver medal in the foil competition Sunday at Carioca Arena 3.

Massialas, who had rallied in the quarterfinals to stay alive, didn’t have any magic left in the final in losing to No. 11 Daniele Garozzo of Italy 15-11.

Afterward, the tears kept coming as Massialas, 22, talked about the mixture of emotions on one of the most significant days in American fencing history. He won the United States’ first men’s individual fencing medal in any of the three weapons since Peter Westbrook took bronze 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.

“Of course, it hurt,” said father Greg Massialas, the San Francisco coach who is credited with turning the United States into a foil fencing power.

“He’s really sad,” the father continued. “But if you had told us at the beginning of the day that you’d come home with a silver medal, you’d take it.”

Alexander, who took a year’s sabbatical from Stanford to train for the Rio Games, had credited his parents throughout his journey to the top of the fencing world. He perhaps wanted it for them as much as himself. Greg Massialas is a three-time Olympian whose best chance was in 1980 when the U.S. team boycotted the Moscow Games.

But while much attention has focused on father and son, Massialas praised his mother, Chwan-Hui Chen, who grew up in Taiwan, as “the secret hero no one ever talks about.”

Wearing neon-yellow shoes, Massialas looked like the favorite with two victories to start the day before getting pinned back by another Italian, Giorgio Avola, in the quarterfinals. Avola built a usually insurmountable 14-8 lead to inch within a point of a monumental upset.

Then Massialas stunningly reeled off seven consecutive touches to advance.

Massialas’ San Francisco training partner, Gerek Meinhardt, was upset by Great Britain’s Richard Kruse 15-13 in the quarterfinals. The fourth-ranked Meinhardt would have faced Massialas in the semifinals had he won. Another fencer from the Massialas Fencing Center, James Andrew Davis of Great Britain, was upset in the round of 16 by Russian Timur Safin 15-13.

Massialas had looked confident in the early bouts with quick attacks and balletic parries to avoid opponents’ blades. He waltzed along the competition floor as if on a victory march.

Then came the gold-medal match in which his father said Massialas got too excited. But really, Massialas fell to a superior opponent.

“I think it’s impossible,” an overjoyed Garozzo said. “I really can’t believe what’s happening now. If you told me this yesterday, I wouldn’t believe it.”

When Massialas fell behind 14-7, he knew another miracle was needed. But Garozzo, fencing in a classical Italian pose, would not bend like his teammate did in the quarterfinals.

Massialas scored four consecutive points to raise the level of drama until the Italian made a graceful lunge for one last touch to end the bout.

“This is the Olympic Games, so I’m not going to go down without a fight,” Massialas said.

Afterward, the American hugged his father, who simply told Massialas, “It’s OK.”

It was the perspective the two-time Olympian needed. The last time an American man won an individual silver medal was in 1932.

Put into historical context, Italy has won more than 100 Olympic fencing medals in all three categories and has a long tradition of the Italian School of Swordsmanship.

The United States has play sword fights in the backyard whenever another “Star Wars” movie hits the big screen.

The Americans also have moxie, with four fencers ranked among the top 20 in the world. It bodes well for the team competition next week after the U.S. men finished fourth at the London Games four years ago.

“It’s an amazing feeling just to give fencing a good name in the U.S.,” Alexander Massialas said. “For the longest time, we weren’t a power in fencing.”

Now it seems the Americans won’t be foiled again.