Olympics: USA star Lauren Scruggs hopes to inspire a generation after becoming the first EVER black woman from America to win a fencing medal

New Yorker Lauren Scruggs has talked of her hopes that by becoming the first black woman from the USA to win an individual medal in fencing, she will draw others like her to enter the sport.

The Harvard University philosophy student, 21, who is a first time Olympian at Paris 2024, initially became keen on fencing through her brother Nolen who was a big Star Wars film fan.

Now the glamour of the silver screen sabre has helped put the spotlight firmly on her and she hopes it will encourage other black Americans to follow her.

She said: ‘Fencing is largely, certainly has been, a non-black sport 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 their place in the sport.

‘My brother was super into Star Wars, so after seeing the movie he wanted to get into fencing. My mom saw an ad for a local club in Brooklyn.

‘He had bounced around between different sports. He tried it and he actually was pretty good and, being the younger sibling, I just did what he did and found that I also really liked fencing and I was pretty good and so it kinda stuck with me.’

Her gold medal dream was dashed by US teammate Lee Kiefer who followed up her gold at Tokyo 2020 with her second Olympic gold medal.

She said: ‘It was so cool being in a final with Lauren because we were both about 5ft 3ins, 5ft 4ins.

‘We're both very athletic and we're very creative. That's really cool for the sport and it's gonna inspire a lot of little girls.’

Lauren, who was born in Queens, spoke about where she gleaned her confidence.

‘I think just where I was raised up, I'm from New York City and you know, I feel like you have to be super confident, how you go about life there.

‘I think I brought some of that with me today. For each match I locked in on my headphones, listened to my music and I got super pumped.

‘I was yelling at myself before I got on guard at every touch, so just bringing the energy that's just always been so integral to my life and I just brought the energy here today.’

The bronze was secured by Canada’s Eleanor Harvey who said she also hoped her podium success would encourage youngsters from her country into the sport.