Alexander Massialas Bio: Family, Olympics & Girlfriend

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Even there is still a long way to go in Alexander Massialas’s career; he is already among the best USA foil fencers ever. 

Growing up, he also played soccer and basketball. However, after his father set up a fencing club, he got more serious about becoming a fencer. 

At 27, he has already won multiple world championships and 3 Olympic medals. Moreover, fencing has been a Massialas family background.

Massialas father Greg represented in the 1982 and 1988 Olympics. Likewise, his sister Sabrina recently competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

Alexander Massialas smiles after winning a match
Alexander Massialas smiles after winning a match.

Furthermore, Massialas describes himself as competitive. He doesn’t like losing, even if it’s a video or board game. That may be the reason why he is a successful fencer. 

Now, let’s look into quick facts before digging in-depth about Massialas’ personal and professional career.

Quick Facts

Name Alexander Massialas
Date of Birth 20th April 1994
Birth Place San Francisco, California, USA
Nick Name Mass (Moss)
Age 29 years old
Gender Male
Religion Christain
Nationality American
Ethnicity White
Horoscope Taurus
Profession Fencing
Height 6’2″ (188 cm)
Weight 84kg (185 lbs)
Body Mass Index (BMI) 23.8
Build Athletic
Hair Color Black
Eye Color Black
Tattoo No
Father Name Greg Massialas
Mother Name Vivian Massialas
Siblings Sabrina Massialas (younger sister)
Relationship Dating
Wife Jenny Lu
Education Drew School (High School), Standford University
Team Massialas Foundation
Status Active (2007 to present)
Weapon Foil
Coach Greg Massialas (Father)
Olympic Records
  • Rio 2016: Individual Men’s Foil (Silver)  
  • Rio 2016:Team Men’s Foil (Bronze)
  • Tokyo 2021:Team Men’s Foil (Bronze)
World Championship Records
  • 2013 Budapest: Team Men’s Foil (Silver) 
  • 2015 Moscow: Individual Men’s Foil (Silver)                                           
  • 2017 Leipzig: Team Men’s Foil (Silver)  
  • 2018 Wuxi: Team Men’s Foil (Silver)    
  • 2019 Budapest: Team Men’s Foil (Gold)
FIE Ranking 6th/ 105 points (As of August 2021)
Salary Unavailable
Net Worth $500k to $1 million
Hobbies Watching TV, Listening MusicSoccer, Basketball, 
Social media Instagram, FacebookTwitter
Merch T-shirts
Last Update March, 2024

Alexander Massialas | Family and Early Years

Family

Alexander Massialas was born on 20th April 1994 in San Francisco, California. He is the oldest son of Greg Massialas and Vivian Massialas. 

Moreover, he has a diverse family. Massialas’s father is of Greek descent, and his mother is Taiwanese. He also has a younger sister named Sabrina Massialas.

Likewise, the Massialas family is of fencing background. Firstly, his father competed for the USA in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.

Alexander Massialas with his sister and father on way to 2020 Tokyo Olympics
Alexander Massialas with his sister and father on the way to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Similarly, his sister competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the first USA fencer to win a gold medal in the Youth Olympic Games. 

He also has grandparents still living in Greece and Taiwan. So, he likes visiting them whenever he gets the chance.

Massialas credits his supportive family for his successful career. His mother was equally instrumental like his father.

Vivian would take him from one practice to another and teach him the importance of mental games daily.

Early Years

Since a young age, Massialas has loved playing sports. Besides fencing, he also played soccer, basketball, and swimming. 

Although Massialas was never forced into fencing by his parents, he showed serious interest in the sport. Later, at 7, his father began his fencing training.

Moreover, his fascination with the Olympics started earlier when his father told him the values and stories of the Olympics.

Similarly, growing up, he idolized USA fencer Gerek Meinhardt and his father.  

From a young age, only he built his endurance and strength. Massialas practiced different sports two times a day daily.  

Read Also: Connor Jaeger Bio: Olympics, Records & Earnings >> 

Alexander Massialas | Personal Life 

Alexander Massialas is currently dating Jenny Lu. She graduated from the University of Pennysulvina in 2017.

Alexander Massialas enjoying hiking with his girlfriend
Alexander Massialas enjoying hiking with his girlfriend

She is an avid traveler, and the couple has been to many beautiful and amazing destinations around the world. 

Favorites

Massialas has many hobbies. Obviously, one of them is sports. During his free time, he likes to watch and play sports like soccer and basketball. 

He grew up in San Francisco, so it’s no surprise he is a huge fan of the Golden State Warriors.

His favorite GSW players are Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. However, as a child, he loved Monta Ellis.

He is also big into skiing. Massialas grew up skiing in Califonia for most of his childhood. But he mentions Atla as his favorite skiing place. 

Massialas also mentions try out skiing in the winter Olympics if he would get the chance. Since he was 2 years old, Alexander has gone skiing every year except Olympic years.

Furthermore, he mentions his hidden talents being decent in video games and computers. 

In addition, he has developed playing guitar into one of his hobbies. Massialas learned to play guitar in 2016 to freshen up his mind from fencing. 

Massialas also loves traveling. He mentions Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Vietnam, and Peru as his bucket list destinations.

Lastly, he likes spending quality time with his friends and families. 

Training

Massialas is trained by his own dad Greg. Moreover, he and his sister train together in his dad’s fencing club. 

His training days are different; Massialas likes strength and conditioning sessions three days and fencing sessions five times a week.

Typically he spends 1.5 hours to 2 hours on strength and conditioning workouts and does two hours of fencing sessions. Likewise, Massialas likes to sleep 9-10 hours daily.

In addition, he doesn’t have strict dietary meals or nutrition plans. But he likes to cook for himself and limits oil, fats, and grease in his food. 

Alexander Massialas | Education

High School

During his childhood, Massialas studied in Chinese-American International School for 11 years. 

So, he can also fluently speak Mandarin too. For 11 years, he did English half-day and  Mandarin half-day daily.

During an interview with USA fencing, Massialas mentioned being grateful to learn Chinese culture and history too. 

Later, he enrolled at Drew High School. Moreover, he made into basketball and swimming team there. 

Alexander Massialas presented with CAIS Alumni Achievement Award
Alexander Massialas presented with CAIS Alumni Achievement Award

Furthermore, in 2018 Chinese American International School honored Massaials with Alumni Achievement Award.

College

In 2012, Massialas completed his high school. Later, he joined Standford University in the fencing scholarship program. 

During his freshman season, only he won the NCAA men’s foil championship and made it into First-team All-American. He posted a 50-8 record.

Next season he defended his NCAA West Regional championship but placed third in the NCAA championship.

Moreover, out of his 23 bouts, he won 20 of those at the NCAA championship before losing to Penn State David Willette in the semis.

Likewise, he defeated Air Force Alex Chiang 15-8 and went 12-0 in the tournament in the regionals.

Massialas also made it into NCAA First Team All-American. He finished the season with a 54-6 record.

Claim at championship

During his junior season, he claimed the NCAA men’s foil championship for the second time.

Moreover, Massialas lost just one bout out of 25 in the nationals. Similarly, he was selected into NCAA First-Team American for the third consecutive year.

Later, next season he didn’t compete for Standford due to international events and injuries. 

Massialas did not participate in Nationals in his senior year and finished with a 20-4 record. In 2017 he graduated with a mechanical engineering degree. 

Furthermore, while studying at Standford, he competed in many international competitions for Team USA. 

He earned his first world cup event medal and Olympic medal during his time in Standford.

Read Also: Rob Dyrdek Net Worth: Salary, Lifestyle & House>>

Alexander Massialas | Olympic Career

Alexander Massialas made his Olympic debut in the 2012 London Olympics.

During that event, he was the youngest USA male athlete competing in any sports at 18 years and 96 days. 

However, he could not finish in podium position at his first Olympic games. In the individual event, he placed 13th, and in the team event placing fourth. 

Later, in the next Olympics at Rio, Massialas became won two medals. Moreover, he became the first USA fencer in 1904 to win two medals at the same Olympics.

Alexander Massialas with his Rio Olympic silver medal
Alexander Massialas with his Rio Olympic silver medal

Going into Rio, he was the number 1 foil fencer in the world. But in the finals of the individual events, he suffered a shocking 15-11 loss against 11th ranked Daniele Gorozzo

However, his silver medal finish is the first by USA foil fencer since the 1932 Olympic games. Likewise, he won a bronze medal at the team event. 

During the 2021 Tokyo Olympic game, his individual event journey ended soon. Massialas faced a 15-12 loss against P. Joppich in the table of 32. 

He was also a member of the Team USA foil team. So, his chances of a medal finish were still prevalent. 

Later, Massialas won his second bronze medal in the Olympic games after Team USA defeated Japan by 45-31. 

Alexander Massialas | Income Source 

Alexander Massialas’s salary has not been revealed yet. Likewise, his earnings from various international events are also not published.

However, he earned $10,000 from the USA Olympic Committee in 2016 after winning a silver medal. 

Similarly, after winning two bronze medals in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Massialas earned a combined $30,000 as prize money. 

Massialas is Nike sponsored athlete. Likewise, just before Olympics, he renewed his contract with Nike till 2022. 

Alexander Massialas is Nike athlete
Alexander Massialas is a Nike athlete.

He also has partnership deals with Athlete Performance Solutions. Moreover, collaborating, they released Massialas Nike apparel in July 2021. 

They released hoodies, t-shirts, towels, caps, mugs, and gym sacks. Massialas merch is available on the Athletics Performance Solutions website. 

Leon Paul London sponsors his fencing equipment. He wears their gears in any fencing events. Lastly, Massialas is represented by CS Sports. 

His exact net worth is not published anywhere. However, as per various online sites, his net worth values lie between $500k to $1 million. 

Read Also: Yasmani Copello Bio: Wife, Career & Sponsors>>

Alexander Massialas | Social Media Presence

Alexander Massialas currently has 3 social media handles; Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter

The Olympian has a decent fan following on his social media platforms. Altogether Alexander combined social media followers accounts of 16.5k followers. 

Not to mention his Facebook account is not a public page. It’s just a normal account. His Facebook account is mainly filled with fencing-related stuff like competitions, training. 

Likewise, he likes to tweets or updates sports-related posts, mainly fencing. 

Moreover, Massialas is mainly active in his Instagram handles. There he updates about his lifestyle and professional career. 

Massialas likes to posts training and events photos and moments he enjoys with his family and friends. 

Interesting Facts

  • Massialas won rock, paper, and scissors to determine Alexander’s name during his kindergarten days as his one friend also had the same name. 
  • Massialas mentions his biggest fears are height and being stung by bees. 
  • Massialas’s closest friend in fencing is the Japanese fencer Yuki Ota, a two-time Olympic silver medalist. 
  • Paris is Massiala’s favorite stop at the World Cup circuit. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Alexander Massialas’s father?

Alexander Massialas’s father is former USA Olympian Greg Massialas. Moreover, he competed in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.

Furthermore, Greg is the founder of the fencing club Massialas Foundation. He is also Alexander’s head coach. 

How many medals did Alexander Massialas win in the Olympics?

Alexander Massialas has competed in 3 Olympics and has finished in a podium position on both occasions. 

He earned his first medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics after finishing second in individual foil. Likewise, he won two bronze medals in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. 

Where did Alexander Massialas go to college?

Alexander Massialas completed his high school at Drew School. Later, he enrolled in Standford in 2012 under the fencing scholarship program. 

Furthermore, he won 2 NCAA men’s foil fencing titles and finished third once. Then in 2017, Alexander graduated with a mechanical engineering degree. 

Sanjib Sah
Sanjib Sah
Sanjib Sah is an engineer and content writer passionate about sports and athletics. With a background in engineering and a love for all things active, Sanjib brings a unique perspective to the world of sports writing. Whether he is covering the latest trends in sports technology or sharing tips on improving your game, Sanjib's words are always rooted in a deep appreciation for players' hard work and dedication everywhere. In his free time, you can find him hitting the courts or hitting the trails, always looking for new ways to challenge himself and improve his skills.

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