How Lee Kiefer Took a Break From Medical School to Make U.S. Olympic Fencing History

Lee Kiefer—now the first American fencer in history to own three Olympic gold medals and the first American woman to win two fencing golds at a single Games—cried on the top of the podium Thursday night at the Grand Palais, shedding more tears, and singing the national anthem louder, than any of her teammates. Kiefer didn’t show such emotion on Sunday, when she won her second straight individual Olympic gold medal in foil fencing.

Kiefer knew she still had to put in the work to her fellow Americans a gold medal too. “We did this together,” said Kiefer after the U.S. defeated Italy in a tense gold medal match in team foil on Thursday. “And it’s the first time I can start to breathe and take it all in.”

In an historic evening for American fencing, Team USA defeated Italy on 45-39 on Thursday, also giving the United States its first national team fencing gold medal in Olympic history (in 1904, Albertson Post of the United States won a team gold in foil on a mixed-nation squad, along with two Cuban fencers.)

The U.S. entered the final round with a 40-32 advantage—45 touches win the match—but Italy’s Arrianna Errigo went on a run against the U.S. team’s anchor fencer, Lauren Scruggs, who lost to Kiefer in individual foil final on Sunday, to cut the lead to 42-39. Then Scruggs, however, aggressively attacked Errigo to stop the bleeding: with two more Scruggs touches, the duel was done.