IIf this was Lee Kiefer’s last time on the competitive track, it’s hard to think of a better way to end. The 30-year-old medical student from Lexington, Kentucky, wrote herself into fencing history Sunday night by winning a second straight Olympic gold medal in the women’s individual foil with a stunning 15-6 victory over her younger teammate Lauren Scruggs in a rare all-American final.
Scruggs, the 21-year-old Queens native and rising senior at Harvard, made history by losing, becoming the first black American fencer to win an individual medal in a women’s event.
With the urgency of someone who’s been waiting outside a taxi, Kiefer conjured up a masterclass of speed, precision, timing, infighting and mental fortitude with the sport’s ultimate prize on the line. Faster in every exchange, she rattled off six straight from 1-2 down, then seven of the last eight to close the show with 40 seconds left in the opening period. It was the performance of a lifetime.
“As hard as 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. “Every day has been a rollercoaster, but here we are at the top.”
Ultimately, it was Kiefer’s greatest asset, her speed, that kept Scruggs chasing phantoms for as long as it lasted. The reigning champion, whose agility and balletic footwork made up for the disadvantages of her 5ft 4in frame, effortlessly picked her opponent apart with a full repertoire of strikes, parry-ripostes and stop-hits, the outcome quickly becoming moot as the avalanche gathered momentum.
After the decisive touch, Kiefer ripped off her mask and jumped to her feet in jubilation. She hugged Scruggs before reuniting with Amgad Khazbak, the longtime coach who spotted her talent nearly two decades ago in Kentucky. The two paced the track, holding an American flag aloft as Kiefer blew kisses to a sprawling 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 the men’s team foil who will be looking to add even more to the family’s income in Monday’s men’s individual foil competition.
Three years ago, Kiefer became only the second American woman ever to win individual Olympic fencing gold when she defeated reigning women’s foil champion Inna Deriglazova in the gold medal match in a nearly empty convention center on the outskirts of Tokyo. It was only the third gold in U.S. history in fencing, one of four sports that has been on the program at every modern Olympic Games since 1896.
Now Kiefer has won the two events back-to-back and, like Mariel Zagunis, is the only American fencer to win two golds in the same event.
“My first gold, I didn’t expect to be able to compete like that with the Russians and the Italians,” said Kiefer, who was born in Cleveland before her family moved to the Kentucky capital when she was young. “It’s a pleasant surprise and I think I’ve developed my skills over the years and it’s just become a mental game of staying positive every day, working on the details. So I think I put a lot of pressure on myself, so it was hard, but it was all the better for it.
Kiefer’s historic Olympic title defense is just the latest major achievement in a life marked by mountains climbed and obstacles dodged. The Filipino-American, a four-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion at Notre Dame, won gold in only her third Olympic trip after finishing fifth at London 2012 and 10th at Rio 2016.
Since enrolling with Meinhardt at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, the self-described “pretty shy, reserved person” has become a fierce advocate for reproductive justice. She volunteers at the helpline for the Kentucky Health Justice Network, a nonprofit that provides funding and education to Kentuckians seeking abortion care. Her dedication to that cause only grew in 2022, when the U.S. 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 next year to complete her degree. But after Sunday’s masterclass, the prospect of defending her title on home soil at the 2028 Los Angeles Games must be a tempting one.
“I’m trying to think about Gerek’s event tomorrow and our team event and a men’s team event,” Kiefer said. “That’s as far as we get into the future now.”
If it was indeed the end of Kiefer’s competitive career, the future of American fencing appears to be in good hands with Scruggs, who toppled Italian favorite Arianna Errigo in the quarterfinals and then burst into tears after winning her semifinal 15-9 over Canada’s Eleanor Harvey to secure at least a silver medal. Just reaching an Olympic final was an extraordinary rise for the New York native, who finished 25th in her first and only world championships this week last year.
Kiefer, seeded second but ranked No. 1 in the world this month and having sailed through the preliminary rounds earlier on Sunday, had a tougher time in her semifinal with Italy’s Alice Volpi in a showdown between two of the best fencers of their generation. But despite Volpi’s 67 percent win rate over Kiefer, including once at a world championship and both of their two most recent meetings, the American held her nerve to secure a spot in the final.
Eleanor Harvey won the bronze medal 15-12 against Volpi, who was unlucky after settling for fourth place at the Olympics for the second time in a row.