It’s difficult to think of a more fitting way to pass away if that was the final time Lee Kiefer took the competitive slope. The 30-year-old Lexington, Kentucky, medical student wrote herself into fencing history on Sunday night by storming to a second consecutive Olympic gold medal in the women’s individual foil. In an uncommon all-American final, she defeated her younger teammate Lauren Scruggs 15-6.
In the process of losing, Scruggs—a bright 21-year-old from Queens who is soon to graduate from Harvard—made history of her own by becoming the first Black American fencer to earn an individual medal in a women’s division. However, the inexperienced Olympian was no match for the reigning champion, who was motivated by the kind of confidence that only comes from experience.
With the biggest reward in the sport at stake, Kiefer performed a masterclass of speed, accuracy, timing, and mental toughness, acting with the urgency of someone whose taxi was waiting outside. She was quicker in every exchange, completing seven of the final eight touches to end the first quarter with 40 seconds remaining. She also reeled off six straight touches from 1-2 down. The show of a lifetime, that was.
After the match, a happy Kiefer stated, “No matter how much I tried to prepare, there’s still so much pressure I put on myself to just fence well and stay present.” “Every day was an adventure, but we’ve reached the pinnacle now.”
In the end, Scruggs was left chasing ghosts for the short while it lasted because of Kiefer’s greatest asset—her lightning speed. With her mature repertoire of attacks, parry-ripostes, and stop-hits, the four-time Olympian, whose agility and balletic footwork compensate for any disadvantages posed by her slight 5ft 4in frame, easily picked her foe apart. As the avalanche gathered pace, the outcome quickly became unavoidable.
Following the final blow, Kiefer ripped off her mask and jumped with joy under the opulent Grand Palais’s barrel-vaulted glass dome, sending the boisterous cheers of the 6,100-strong audience through the roof. She gave Scruggs a hug at the center line before joining forces with veteran teacher Amgad Khazbak, who saw her potential at the Bluegrass Fencers’ Club in Lexington almost twenty years ago.
A misty-eyed Kiefer blew kisses to a thronging family section that included Gerek Meinhardt, her husband of five years and the other half of fencing’s power couple, who is a two-time bronze medalist in men’s team foil and will look to add more to the family haul on Monday in the men’s individual foil competition. The two strode back and forth along the strip raising an American flag.
Three years ago, in front of a mostly empty convention center on the outskirts of Tokyo, Kiefer overcame the reigning women’s foil champion, Inna Deriglazova, to become just the second American woman to win individual Olympic fencing gold. Fencing is one of only four sports to have been included on the schedule of every modern Olympic Games since 1896, and that gold was only the third in US history.
Kiefer has now cemented herself in the elite ranks of consecutive Olympic champions, entering the ranks of recent women to successfully defend an individual championship, like Mariel Zagunis of the US (sabre), Valentina Vezzali of Italy (foil), and Timea Nagy of Hungary (epee). Ilona Elek-Schacherer of Hungary was the only other woman to win gold in solo foil twice, in 1936 and 1948, aside from Vezzali.
Having been born in Cleveland and raised in Lexington, Kiefer remarked, “I was not expecting myself to be able to compete like that with the Russians and the Italians when I won my first gold.” Thus, it’s a welcome surprise. Over the past several years, I believe my talents have improved, and now it’s just a mental game for me to keep trying to be optimistic and pay attention to the details every day. I put a lot of pressure on myself, so even though it was difficult, it was made even more beautiful.
Kiefer’s unprecedented title defense is merely the most recent noteworthy accomplishment in a life marked by challenges overcome and summits reached. The Filipino-American, a four-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion at the University of Notre Dame, didn’t win an Olympic gold medal until her third attempt, coming in fifth in London in 2012 and tenth in Rio 2016.
Alongside Meinhardt, the self-described “pretty shy, reserved person” enrolled at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and went on to become a fervent supporter of reproductive rights. She works as a volunteer helpline operator for the Kentucky Health Justice Network, a nonprofit organization that offers financial support and information to Kentuckians in need of abortion services. After the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022, her dedication to the cause only increased.
After taking a break from medical school to prepare for their fourth Olympic Games with Meinhardt, Kiefer has stated that she intends to resume her studies the following year. However, following Sunday’s incredible performance on the grandest platform of the sport, the idea of competing for a gold medal in three consecutive events at home in Los Angeles in 2028 must be alluring.
“I’m trying to think about our team event, the men’s foil team event, and Gerek’s event tomorrow,” Kiefer remarked. “At this point, that’s as far as we’re going to go in the future.”
If Kiefer’s athletic career was truly over, Scruggs, the tournament’s ninth seed who upset Italian favorite Arianna Errigo in the quarterfinals and broke down in tears after defeating Canada’s Eleanor Harvey in the semifinals to secure at least a silver, seems to have the future of American fencing in good hands. For the native New Yorker, who finished 25th in her first and only world championships a year ago this week, just making it to the Olympic final capped an incredible journey.
“It seems like you have to have a lot of confidence in yourself just to get by in New York City,” Scruggs, who received his training at the Peter Westbrook Foundation—a nonprofit known for teaching fencing to young people in disadvantaged cities—explained. “I believe I carried some of that with me today.”
She continued, saying, “I hope to inspire young Black girls to get into fencing and to think that they can have a place in the sport. Fencing has historically been largely a non-Black sport.” All I can ask is that more young females and people who resemble me feel included in the sport.
Kiefer, who started the tournament ranked second but rose to the top of the world rankings this month, breezed through the preliminary rounds on Sunday but found it more difficult to overcome Italy’s Alice Volpi in the semifinals, which pitted two of the best fencers of their generation against one another. Despite having defeated Kiefer in both of their previous meetings and once in a world championship, Volpi had a 67% win percentage going into the match. Nevertheless, the American competitor maintained her composure to secure a spot in the final.
On Thursday, in the team foil event, where the US is seeded fourth out of eight entries, Kiefer and Scruggs will have an opportunity to increase their total of medals won in Paris.
Three-time Olympian Harvey from Ontario completed a North American sweep of the bronze medal match, defeating the reigning world champion Volpi, who looked unlucky having finished fourth in the previous two Olympics. Harvey’s score was 15–12. It was fencing’s first-ever medal for Canada.
