American Lee Kiefer wins 2nd Olympic gold in women’s foil fencing

PARIS — Lee Kiefer received back-to-back gold medals in foil fencing and her teammate Lauren Scruggs took the silver Sunday to make historical past as the primary Black fencer to win an Olympic medal in a person ladies’s occasion for america.

Kiefer received 15-6 within the closing in opposition to Scruggs and celebrated by joyfully pirouetting down the piste. Figuring out the U.S. anthem would play after the ultimate it doesn’t matter what “took the strain off,” Kiefer stated.

The vocal crowd within the cavernous Grand Palais was an enormous distinction to the hushed, empty venue in Chiba, Japan, the place Kiefer received her first Olympic gold three years in the past underneath pandemic restrictions.

Kiefer devoted her win to Buckie Leach, who coached her to gold in Tokyo however died 20 days later in a bike accident. “He can be so completely happy for me,” she stated. “This one’s for him. I actually have a image of him on my wall within the village.”

Kiefer’s gold medal is the fifth in a person occasion for a U.S. fencer. She follows Mariel Zagunis in 2004 and 2008 as the one American fencers to win gold in the identical occasion twice.

“Mariel, who did it earlier than me, she has been supporting me and being a very vital particular person to maintain me feeling vital and seen and empowered these previous years, so I actually wish to thank her for being that particular person,” Kiefer stated.

There hadn’t been an all-U.S. closing in an Olympic fencing occasion since 2008, when Zagunis beat Sada Jacobson in saber as a part of an American podium sweep. Earlier than that, the final time it occurred was in 1904.

“I am positively extra completely happy than upset,” Scruggs stated. “I feel that it was surprising for me to be right here within the first place, so I do not even suppose I’ve had time to course of shedding, if I am being sincere. Simply surprising and simply tremendous grateful.”

It continues a speedy rise to the highest of world fencing for Scruggs, a 21-year-old Harvard scholar from Queens, New York.

“Perhaps two years in the past, I actually thought I may make the group, till final yr, I made my first senior group,” she stated. “So to come back out right here and medal is simply insane.”

Scruggs stated she desires to encourage younger Black fencers and present “that they’ve a spot within the sport.”

Kiefer is a part of a adorned Olympic energy couple.

Kiefer’s husband, Gerek Meinhardt, is a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in males’s foil who will compete in two occasions in Paris. Kiefer and Meinhardt are medical college students on the College of Kentucky who’ve taken go away from their research to pursue their Olympic goals.

Requested about her future, Kiefer reeled off her and Meinhardt’s remaining occasions in Paris. “That is so far as we’re considering for now,” she stated.

Eleanor Harvey grew to become the primary Canadian to win an Olympic fencing medal when she beat Alice Volpi of Italy 15-12 for the bronze.

Additionally Sunday, Japan’s Koki Kano beat France’s Yannick Borel 15-9 for the lads’s epee gold medal. It was Japan’s first gold in a person Olympic fencing occasion.

The vocal dwelling crowd needed to accept silver for the second day in a row after Auriane Mallo-Breton misplaced within the ladies’s epee closing Saturday.

Mohamed Elsayed received the bronze for Egypt 8-7 in time beyond regulation in opposition to Hungary’s Tibor Andrasfi.