Lee Kiefer tried to not really feel the stress of repeating as Olympic champion, even whereas figuring out deep down that incomes a second Olympic gold medal could be harder than incomes her first.
“Irrespective of how a lot I attempted to arrange, there’s nonetheless a lot stress I placed on myself to simply fence nicely and keep current,” she mentioned.
Add within the distractions of fencing in entrance of an 8,000-person crowd, together with many family and friends members who couldn’t watch her reside in Tokyo 2020, and the stakes change into even greater.
“It’s so particular to have my household (right here), all my greatest buddies who I haven’t even seen,” she mentioned. “I attempted to identify them within the crowd. Nevertheless it makes it a lot fuller.”
Kiefer, who fences for the Bluegrass Fencers’ Membership in Lexington, was already the primary American lady or man to win gold in foil. Now she’s the primary to do it twice, cementing her legacy as one of many biggest fencers in U.S. historical past.
She joins Mariel Zagunis (girls’s saber gold in 2004 and 2008) as the one American fencers with two particular person Olympic gold medals.
However the evening’s historical past didn’t finish there.
Kiefer’s opponent within the gold medal ultimate was Lauren Scruggs (Queens, N.Y.). Scruggs, who fences for the Peter Westbrook Basis in New York Metropolis, turns into the primary Black lady to win a person fencing medal (of any colour) for Staff USA.
She additionally turns into simply the second American lady to win a person medal (of any colour) in foil, becoming a member of Kiefer.
“I’m positively extra pleased than upset,” she mentioned. “I usually would say I believe it was stunning for me to be right here within the first place. So I don’t even assume I’ve had time to course of.”
Sunday’s matchup — gained by Kiefer, 15-6, was the primary all-U.S. Olympic gold medal ultimate since Beijing 2008, when Mariel Zagunis defeated Sada Jacobson within the Girls’s Saber particular person ultimate.
And it occurred in one of the vital picturesque fencing venues that any of the game’s longtime followers have ever seen.
“That is insane,” Scruggs mentioned. “Simply seeing the sheer quantity of people who find themselves all in favour of fencing and who need to assist fencers is simply superb, as a result of we don’t actually have that in America. So, I’m simply tremendous grateful to have the ability to fence in entrance of such a giant crowd and in such an attractive area.”
The final all-American ultimate in girls’s foil in any senior-level worldwide fencing competitors was in 2016, when Lee Kiefer fenced her Tokyo 2020 Olympic teammate Nicole Ross.
Kiefer turns into the third lady to win a number of Olympic gold medals within the girls’s particular person foil occasion, after Valentina Vezzali (ITA, 3) and Ilona Elek (HUN, 2).
USA Fencing