United States fencer Daryl Homer faced a familiar opponent in the saber final Wednesday night in Rio de Janeiro. Maybe too familiar.

Homer has competed against Hungry’s Aron Szilagyi since they were both 16 years old. As a result, Homer fell to Szilagyi in the gold medal bout, 15-8, and claimed silver.

The medal represented the culmination of a 15-year journey and capped a tough season for Homer.

“I struggled a lot individually [this season],’’ said Homer. “I struggled a lot with my own confidence this year after climbing the podium [for silver] last year in Moscow for the World Championships. You start tinkering a little bit trying to get better and you fall off a little bit. It was great to see that I could put together this kind of performance.’’

Almost from the start, Homer trailed Sziliagyi and tried to catch up. But it the early deficit proved too large to overcome.

Ranked No. 10 in the world, Homer was assured of making history in the final.

With the silver, Homer, 26, became the first US men’s saber medal winner since Peter Westbrook took home bronze at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Homer was also the first American to win a silver medal in men’s individual saber in 112 years. And along with the silver medal Alex Massialas earned in foil, the US has its first multiple medal performance in individual men’s fencing since the 1904 St. Louis Games.

But the historic connection to Westbrook goes far beyond medals. Both Homer and Westbrook are black, something of a rarity in fencing. It was through the Peter Westbrook Foundation that the Bronx-raised Homer first learned fencing. The LA Olympian started the foundation to introduce fencing to inner-city children from New York. Homer chose saber as his weapon because of Westbrook.

“I wouldn’t have found an access point to fencing without Peter,’’ said Homer. “So, I probably would have been here. He lives 10 blocks away from me. I stop by his house from time to time.

“I’ll probably stop by when I get back and talk a little trash because I just dethroned him.’’

Women’s fencing — Russian Inna Deriglazova won gold in women’s foil, giving her country its second fencing title of the Rio Games.

Deriglazova beat Italy’s Elisa Di Francisca, the gold medalist from the London Olympics, 12-11, to claim a world title for the second year in a row. Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri took bronze.

Italian Arianna Errigo, the heavy favorite entering the tournament, was upset in the round of 16. So was third-ranked American Lee Kiefer, who said afterward that this will likely be her last Olympic appearance.

Men’s diving — There won’t be a golden sweep in the Olympic diving pool. Britain upset China to win the men’s synchronized 3-meter springboard with Jack Laugher and Chris Mears totaling 454.32 points.

Sam Dorman and Amherst’s Mike Hixon took silver for the United States with 450.21. China’s Cao Yuan and Qin Kai settled for bronze with 443.70, ending their country’s bid to sweep the eight diving medals at the Rio de Janeiro Games. The Chinese had won the first three synchro events.

On a dreary day at Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre, a steady drizzle fell throughout the six-round final. The pool’s water was green for the second straight day, with games officials struggling to correct what they say is decreased alkalinity that’s causing the change from clear blue to murky green.

Qin was trying to win a third straight 3-meter synchro gold medal with his third different partner. But the 30-year-old Chinese — oldest in the contest — faltered in the third round, dropping his team to second behind the British.

China fell to third in the next round, but moved up to second after its fifth dive. Cao and Qin earned scores ranging from 8.5 to 9.0, leaving them within 2.64 points of Britain heading into the last round. Laugher and Mears nailed the toughest dive any team attempted in the final, scoring 86.58 points in the fifth round.

The Brits, Americans and Chinese all attempted the same dive to close the contest.

Dorman and Hixon went first, scoring 98.04 to take over first, with the British and Chinese still to come. The Americans endured a five-minute wait while Mexico’s duo, who competed in front of them, sought a do-over.

Jahir Ocampo and Rommel Pacheco complained to officials after a temporary light on scaffolding above the pool suddenly turned on while they were starting their dive.

It appeared the Mexicans would be allowed to go again, and they climbed back on the boards. Hixon had already started up the stairs, thinking it was his turn before going back down to wait.

Ocampo and Pacheco stood on the boards waiting for the judges to give the go signal. It never came. They weren’t allowed another attempt. It wouldn’t have affected the medal finish, but might have moved the Mexicans up to fourth instead of fifth among the eight teams.

After Hixon celebrated his team’s execution by punching the water, the Brits grabbed the top spot back, although at 91.20 they didn’t score as high as the Americans.

On China’s last dive, Qin struggled again, failing to enter the water straight on a forward 4½ somersaults dive carrying a 3.8 degree of difficulty that scored 83.22.

China failed to win gold in the event for the first time since the 2004 Athens Games.

Women’s cycling — Kristin Armstrong of the United States won her third consecutive Olympic time trial, her golden effort on the brutal course leaving her in an exhausted heap on the road at the finish line.

Armstrong covered the course through driving wind and rain in 44 minutes, 26.42 seconds, beating Olga Zabelinskaya of Russia by just 5.55 seconds. Anna van der Breggen of the Netherlands added a bronze medal to her gold from the road race.

Armstrong, who turns 43 on Thursday, joined speedskater Bonnie Blair as the only American women to win three gold medals in the same event at any Olympics. She also won in Beijing and London.

Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk slid off the course, likely costing her a medal. She finished fourth.

Men’s cycling — Fabian Cancellara capped his remarkable career with his second Olympic gold medal, the retiring Swiss star powering over the hilly, rain-slicked course to deny favorite Tom Dumoulin and British rival Chris Froome.

Cancellara looked like the same youngster who dominated the 2008 Beijing Games, finishing in a time of 1 hour, 12 minutes, 15.42 seconds. Dumoulin finished 47 seconds back to take silver, despite breaking his hand during the Tour de France, while Froome had to settle for bronze.

Froome was trying to follow in the footsteps of compatriot Bradley Wiggins, who won the Tour in 2012 before capturing time trial gold at the London Games. But he was never able to match the pace of Cancellara, falling behind at the first check-point and finishing 1:02 behind him.

Judo — Japan’s Mashu Baker won the gold medal in the men’s 90-kilogram division, in a clean sweep for the country of Wednesday’s judo medals. Compatriot Haruka Tachimoto earlier won the women’s gold in the 70-kilogram category.

The second-seeded Baker defeated Georgia’s Varlam Liparteliani in a cagey final where Baker managed to score only once. In an otherwise scoreless fight, however, that was enough.

Baker, whose father is American, trained at the Kodokan, the spiritual home of the Japanese martial art and its most famed dojo after starting judo at age six. Baker has won four judo Grand Slam titles and took a bronze at last year’s world championships.

Liparteliani was seeded fifth and fought at the London Olympics but got knocked out in the second round.

The men’s bronze medals were won by South Korea’s Donghan Gwak and China’s Xunzhao Cheng.

Tachimoto managed to pin Alvear to the ground for 20 seconds, scoring an ippon victory that automatically ends the bout.

Alvear is a triple world judo champion and won a bronze at the London Olympics. She was Colombia’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremonies of the Rio Games

Until the Grand Slam in Paris in February where she won silver after losing to South Korea’s Seongyeon Kim in the final, Tachimoto had been undefeated since 2014. She finished seventh at the London Games. Tachimoto’s gold is the second gold medal for Japan’s judo team at Rio.

The women’s bronze medals were won by Great Britain’s Sally Conway and Germany’s Laura Vargas Koch.

Men’s weightlifting — Kazakhstan’s Nijat Rahimov shattered the clean and jerk world record to take gold in the men’s 77-kilogram weightlifting class.

With reigning champion Lyu Xiaojun of China looking a surefire bet for gold, Rahimov took the audacious step of moving up 12 kilograms on his second clean and jerk attempt for a world-record 214.

That gave him a total of 379, equal with Lyu. Rahimov won thanks to weighing in lower for the competition. Lyu took silver. Bronze went to Egyptian Mohamed Mahmoud on 361.

Rahimov served a doping ban between 2013 and 2015 and had been in doubt for the Olympics after the International Weightlifting Federation tried to exclude the entire Kazakh team over repeated doping positives, but the procedure was not completed in time for Rio.

Armenia’s Andranik Karapetyan had been second after the snatch but an arm injury during a lift left him screaming in pain and he had to withdraw.

Women’s weightlifting — Chinese weightlifter Xiang Yanmei survived a nasty collision with the bar to win gold in the women’s 69-kilogram class.

Xiang had appeared dazed after the bar hit the back of her head on a failed snatch attempt, but recovered well to take the gold with 116 kilograms in the snatch and 145 in the clean and jerk, for a total of 261. She adds Olympic gold to the world titles she won in 2013 and 2015.

Silver went to Kazakhstan’s Zhazira Zhapparkul with a 259 total. Egypt’s Sara Ahmed won bronze with 255 kilos.

Zhapparkul had faced possible exclusion from the Olympics after the International Weightlifting Federation proposed to bar the entire Kazakh team for numerous doping failures, but the procedures were not completed in time for Rio.

Women’s table tennis — China’s Ding Ning avenged her loss in the London Olympics to countrywoman Li Xiaoxia, taking gold over Li in the women’s finals and extending China’s supremacy in the sport.

When Ding, 26, lost to Li four years ago, she broke down in tears. On Wednesday, Ding dropped to her knees, the tears flowing again.

The 28-year-old Li was trying to become the third Chinese woman to win back-to-back Olympics. Chinese women have won every gold singles medal since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988.

The tense match came down to a deciding seventh game and was filled with long, exciting rallies, lighting quick smashes, looping topspin forehands and stretching defensive saves.

Men’s canoe — British slalom canoeist Joseph Clarke, initially turned away from his local club because he was too young to join, won the kayak gold medal at Whitewater Stadium.

He’s the second British Olympic champion in canoe slalom. Peter Kauzer won the silver, Jiri Prskavec the bronze.

Coming down the course eighth in the 10-man final, Clarke enjoyed a clean run in 88.53 seconds. He took over first place 0.17 seconds faster than the previous paddler, Peter Kauzer of Slovenia, a two-time world champion and the world series titleholder.

There were two paddlers left, but Jiri Prskavec of the Czech Republic, the current world champion, was penalized for touching a gate with his head. Last man Jakub Grigar of Slovakia, the world junior champion, could place only fifth.

Men’s trap shooting — Kuwait’s Fehaid Al Deehani, competing as an independent, captured double-trap gold by defeating Italy’s Marco Innocenti in the final match.

With Kuwait suspended by the IOC, Al Deehani and seven other athletes were allowed to compete as independents in Rio.

The veteran of six Olympics needed a shoot-off with American Joshua Richmond to get into the finals, but hit 28 targets to reach the gold medal match against Innocenti.

A proud officer in the Kuwait army, Al Deehani dropped to the ground and kneeled after reaching the final, then pounded his chest as he walked away.

In the gold medal match, Al Deehani hit 26 targets and Innocenti 24. Al Deehani raised his arms in triumph after hitting the final two targets, then turned and again pounded his chest at the crowd.

Al Deehani became the first Kuwaiti athlete to win an Olympic medal with a bronze at Sydney in 2000 and added another in London four years ago.

Steven Scott hit all 30 targets to defeat Great Britain shooter Tim Kneale for the bronze medal.

Men’s pistol shooting — South Korea’s Jin Jong-oh shot his way back from the brink of elimination to win his third straight gold in the 50-meter event.

With a steadier hand in the final rounds, Jin prevailed over Vietnam’s Xuan Vinh Hoang, who made history on Saturday by winning his country’s first gold medal.

Kim Song Guk of North Korea won the bronze in his first international final.

The 36-year-old Jin, ranked No. 1 in the world, is one of the Olympics’ most decorated pistol shooters, having won the 50-meter titles at Beijing and London, where he also claimed the 10m air pistol event.

Associated Press contributed to this report.