If it was the last time Lee Kiefer took the competitive piste, it’s hard to imagine a better way to go out. The 30-year-old medical student from Lexington, Kentucky, wrote herself into fencing history on Sunday night, winning a second straight Olympic gold medal in the women’s individual foil with a dazzling 15-6 win over younger teammate Lauren Scruggs in a rare all-American final.
Scruggs, the 21-year-old Queens native and rising Harvard senior, made history of her own in defeat, becoming the first Black American fencer to win an individual medal in a women’s event.
Operating with the urgency of someone with a taxi waiting outside, Kiefer conjured a masterclass of speed, precision, timing, in-fighting and mental fortitude with the sport’s ultimate prize on the line. Quicker in every exchange, she rattled off six straight touches from 1-2 down, then seven of the last eight to close the show with 40 seconds to spare in the opening period. It was the performance of a lifetime.
“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,” a jubilant Kiefer said afterward. “Each day was a rollercoaster, but here we are at the top.”
In the end it was Kiefer’s greatest asset, her speed, that left Scruggs chasing phantoms for as long as it lasted. The defending champion, whose agility and balletic footwork make up for any disadvantages posed by her slight 5ft 4in frame, effortlessly picked her foe apart with a full repertoire of attacks, parry-ripostes and stop-hits, the outcome rapidly appearing beyond negotiation as the avalanche gathered pace.
After the decisive touch Kiefer tore off her mask and leapt in jubilation. She embraced Scruggs before coming together with Amgad Khazbak, the longtime coach who spotted her talent nearly two decades ago in Kentucky. The two strode back and forth along the piste raising an American flag while Kiefer blew kisses to a massive family section that included Gerek Meinhardt, her husband of five years and the other half of fencing’s power couple, a two-time bronze medalist in men’s team foil who will look to add more to the family haul on Monday in the men’s individual foil competition.
Three years ago Kiefer became just the second American woman ever to win individual Olympic fencing gold when she defeated the defending women’s foil champion Inna Deriglazova in the gold medal bout in a near-empty convention center on the outskirts of Tokyo. That marked only the third gold in US history in fencing, which is one of only four sports to have been on the programme at every modern Olympic Games dating back to 1896.
Now Kiefer has gone back to back, joining Mariel Zagunis as the only American fencers to win gold in the same event twice.
“My first gold, I was not expecting myself to be able to compete like that with the Russians and the Italians,” said Kiefer, who was born in Cleveland before the family relocated to Kentucky’s capital when she was young. “So is a pleasant surprise and I think I’ve grown my skills over the past few years and it becomes just a mental game every day trying to stay positive, trying to keep working at the details. So I think there’s a lot of pressure that I placed on myself, so it was hard, but all the more beautiful because of that.
Kiefer’s historic Olympic title defense is only the latest high achievement in a life defined by mountains climbed and obstacles denied. A four-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion at Notre Dame, the Filipino-American didn’t strike gold until her third Olympic trip after placing fifth at London 2012 and 10th at Rio 2016.
Since enrolling at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine alongside Meinhardt, the self-described “pretty shy, reserved person” has become a staunch advocate of reproductive justice, she volunteers as a helpline volunteer with the Kentucky Health Justice Network, a non-profit that provides funding and education for Kentuckians seeking abortion care. Her commitment to that cause only redoubled in 2022, when the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade.
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After putting her studies on hold to train for her fourth Olympics, she will return to compete her studies next year. But after Sunday’s masterclass, the prospect of defending her title on home soil at the 2028 Los Angeles Games surely must be tempting.
“I’m trying to think about Gerek’s event tomorrow and our team event and a men’s foil team event” Kiefer said. “That’s as far as we’re getting into the future for now.”
If it was indeed the end of Kiefer’s competitive career, the future of American fencing appears in good hands with Scruggs, who toppled Italian favorite Arianna Errigo in the quarter-finals, then was reduced to tears after winning her semi-final 15-9 over Canada’s Eleanor Harvey to ensure at least a silver. Simply reaching an Olympic final capped an extraordinary rise for native New Yorker, who finished 25th in her first and only world championships a year ago this week.
Kiefer, seeded second but ranked No 1 in this month’s world rankings, who had sailed through the preliminary rounds earlier Sunday, had a harder time in her semi-final with Italy’s Alice Volpi in a showdown of two of the finest fencers of their generation. But although Volpi entered with a 67% win percentage over Kiefer, including once at a world championships and both of their two most recent meetings, the American held her nerve to book a place in the final.
Eleanor Harvey made it a North American sweep by winning 15-12 in the bronze medal contest over Volpi, who cut a hard-luck figure after settling for fourth at a second straight Olympics.
