If it was the final time Lee Kiefer took the aggressive piste, it’s laborious to think about a greater strategy to exit. The 30-year-old medical pupil from Lexington, Kentucky, wrote herself into fencing historical past on Sunday evening, successful a second straight Olympic gold medal within the girls’s particular person foil with a stunning 15-6 win over youthful teammate Lauren Scruggs in a uncommon all-American ultimate.
Scruggs, the 21-year-old Queens native and rising Harvard senior, made historical past of her personal in defeat, changing into the primary Black American fencer to win a person medal in a girls’s occasion.
Working with the urgency of somebody with a taxi ready outdoors, Kiefer conjured a masterclass of velocity, footwork, timing, stamina and psychological fortitude with the game’s final prize on the road. She rattled off six straight factors from 1-2 down, then seven of the final eight to shut the present with 40 seconds to spare within the opening interval. It was the efficiency of a lifetime.
“Irrespective of how a lot I attempted to organize, there’s nonetheless a lot strain I placed on myself to simply fence effectively and keep current,” a jubilant Kiefer mentioned afterward. “Every day was a rollercoaster, however right here we’re on the high.”
In the long run it was Kiefer’s biggest asset, her velocity, that left Scruggs chasing phantoms on the piste. The defending champion effortlessly picked her foe aside with a full repertoire of assaults, parry-ripostes and stop-hits, the result quickly showing past negotiation because the avalanche gathered tempo.
After the ultimate level Kiefer tore off her masks and leapt in jubilation. She embraced Scruggs earlier than coming along with Amgad Khazbak, the longtime coach who noticed her expertise practically 20 years in the past in Kentucky. The 2 strode forwards and backwards alongside the piste elevating an American flag whereas Kiefer blew kisses to an enormous household part that included Gerek Meinhardt, her husband of 5 years and the opposite half of fencing’s energy couple, a two-time bronze medalist in males’s workforce foil who will look so as to add extra to the household haul on Monday within the males’s particular person foil competitors.
Three years in the past Kiefer grew to become simply the second American lady ever to win particular person Olympic fencing gold when she defeated the defending girls’s foil champion Inna Deriglazova within the gold medal bout in a near-empty conference middle on the outskirts of Tokyo. That marked solely the third gold in US historical past in fencing, which is certainly one of solely 4 sports activities to have been on the programme at each trendy Olympic Video games relationship again to 1896.
Now Kiefer has gone again to again, becoming a member of Mariel Zagunis as the one American fencers to win gold in the identical occasion twice.
“My first gold, I used to be not anticipating myself to have the ability to compete like that with the Russians and the Italians,” Kiefer mentioned. “So is a nice shock and I feel I’ve grown my expertise over the previous few years and it turns into only a psychological sport daily making an attempt to remain optimistic, making an attempt to maintain working on the particulars. So I feel there’s lots of strain that I positioned on myself, so it was laborious, however all of the extra lovely due to that.
Kiefer’s historic Olympic title protection is simply the newest excessive achievement in a life outlined by mountains climbed and obstacles denied. A four-time Nationwide Collegiate Athletic Affiliation (NCAA) champion at Notre Dame, the Filipino-American didn’t strike gold till her third Olympic journey after putting fifth at London 2012 and tenth at Rio 2016.
Since enrolling on the College of Kentucky Faculty of Drugs alongside Meinhardt, the self-described “fairly shy, reserved individual” has turn into a staunch advocate of reproductive justice, she volunteers as a helpline volunteer with the Kentucky Well being Justice Community, a non-profit that gives funding and training for Kentuckians searching for abortion care. Her dedication to that trigger solely redoubled in 2022, when the US supreme court docket overturned Roe v Wade.
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After placing her research on maintain to coach for her fourth Olympics, she’s going to return to compete her research subsequent yr. However after Sunday’s masterclass, the prospect of defending her title on residence soil on the 2028 Los Angeles Video games certainly should be tempting.
“I’m making an attempt to consider Gerek’s occasion tomorrow and our workforce occasion and a males’s foil workforce occasion” Kiefer mentioned. “That’s so far as we’re moving into the longer term for now.”
If it was certainly the tip of Kiefer’s aggressive profession, the way forward for American fencing seems in good arms with Scruggs, who toppled Italian favourite Arianna Errigo within the quarter-finals, then was lowered to tears after successful her semi-final 15-9 over Canada’s Eleanor Harvey to make sure not less than a silver. Merely reaching an Olympic ultimate capped a rare rise for native New Yorker, who completed twenty fifth in her first and solely world championships a yr in the past this week.
Kiefer, seeded second however ranked No 1 on this month’s world rankings, who had sailed via the preliminary rounds earlier Sunday, had a tougher time in her semi-final with Italy’s Alice Volpi in a showdown of two of the best fencers of their technology. However though Volpi entered with a 67% win share over Kiefer, together with as soon as at a world championships and each of their two most up-to-date conferences, the American held her nerve to e-book a spot within the ultimate.
Eleanor Harvey made it a North American sweep by successful 15-12 within the bronze medal contest over Volpi, who minimize a hard-luck determine after settling for fourth at a second straight Olympics.
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