Lee Kiefer

Lee Kiefer
Personal information
Born	(1994-06-15) June 15, 1994 (age 29) Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Height	1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	49 kg (108 lb)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Fencing
Weapon	Foil
Hand	right-handed
Club	Bluegrass Fencers Club
Head coach	Amgad Khazbak
FIE ranking	current ranking
Medal record Women's foil Representing the  United States Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo Individual World Championships 2018 Wuxi Team 2017 Leipzig Team 2022 Cairo Team 2011 Catania Individual 2019 Budapest Team 2022 Cairo Individual 2023 Milan Individual Pan American Games 2011 Guadalajara Individual 2011 Guadalajara Team 2015 Toronto Individual 2019 Lima Individual 2019 Lima Team 2023 Santiago Individual 2023 Santiago Team 2015 Toronto Team Pan American Championships 2010 San José Individual 2010 San José Team 2011 Reno Individual 2011 Reno Team 2012 Cancún Individual 2012 Cancún Team 2013 Cartagena Individual 2013 Cartagena Team 2014 San José Individual 2014 San José Team 2015 Santiago Individual 2015 Santiago Team 2016 Panama City Individual 2016 Panama City Team 2017 Montreal Individual 2017 Montreal Team 2018 Havana Individual 2018 Havana Team 2019 Toronto Team 2023 Lima Individual 2023 Lima Team

Lee Kiefer (born June 15, 1994) is an American right-handed foil fencer.^[1]

Kiefer is a four-time NCAA champion, ten-time team Pan American champion, nine-time individual Pan American champion, and 2018 team world champion.

A three-time Olympian, Kiefer is a 2020 individual Olympic champion. Kiefer is the first American foil fencer in history to win an individual Olympic gold medal.^[2]

Kiefer competed in the 2012 London Olympic Games, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Career

Kiefer was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Lexington, Kentucky.^[3] Her mother Teresa, a psychiatrist, was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the US as a child, and her father Steve, a neurosurgeon, once captained the Duke University fencing team. She graduated from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in 2012. She attended the University of Notre Dame, where she fenced for the Fighting Irish and graduated in 2017.^[4] She is now a medical student at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

Her sister is former Harvard foil fencer and 2011 NCAA champion Alex Kiefer, who is now a doctor.^[5] Kiefer also has a younger brother, Axel, who was the 2015 USA Fencing National Championships Junior Gold Medalist, and who also attended and fenced foil for the University of Notre Dame, coming in second in the 2019 NCAA Championship.^[6]

Kiefer earned a bronze medal in Women's foil at the 2011 World Fencing Championships.^[7] She placed 5th at the 2012 London Olympic Games, after losing to eventual silver medalist Arianna Errigo in the quarter final, 15–10. In the 2014–15 season she climbed her first World Cup podium with a silver medal in Saint-Maur.^[8] She went on to win the Algiers World Cup in early 2015 after defeating world No.1 Arianna Errigo, who had prevailed over her in Saint-Maur. By winning at the 2014 NCAA Fencing National Championships, she joined male fencer Gerek Meinhardt and swimmer Emma Reaney as part of the 2nd Notre Dame Fighting Irish trio to be named individual national champion in a single year and the 4th to be either individual national champion or national athlete of the year in a single year.^[9]

Following her win at the Long Beach Grand Prix on March 18, 2017, she moved into #1 in FIE world rankings, becoming the first American woman to hold the #1 position.

She qualified to represent the United States in fencing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and reached the final in the individual foil.^[10] In the final, she defeated Inna Deriglazova, the defending champion, with a score of 15–13 to win gold.^[11][12] She is the first American, male or female, to win the gold medal in Olympic individual foil.^[13]

Personal life

Lee and fellow foil fencer Gerek Meinhardt began dating in January 2012. They were engaged in January 2018 and married in September 2019.

Medal record

Olympic Games

Year	Location	Event	Position
2021	Tokyo, Japan	Individual Women's Foil	1st[14]

World Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2011	Catania, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[15]
2017	Leipzig, Germany	Team Women's Foil	2nd[16]
2018	Wuxi, China	Team Women's Foil	1st[17]
2019	Budapest, Hungary	Team Women's Foil	3rd[18]
2022	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[19]

Pan American Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2010	San José, Costa Rica	Individual Women's Foil	1st[20]
2010	San José, Costa Rica	Team Women's Foil	1st[21]
2011	Reno, Nevada	Individual Women's Foil	1st[22]
2011	Reno, Nevada	Team Women's Foil	1st[23]
2012	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Women's Foil	1st[24]
2012	Cancún, Mexico	Team Women's Foil	1st[25]
2013	Cartagena, Colombia	Individual Women's Foil	1st[26]
2013	Cartagena, Colombia	Team Women's Foil	1st[27]
2014	San José, Costa Rica	Individual Women's Foil	1st[28]
2014	San José, Costa Rica	Team Women's Foil	1st[29]
2015	Santiago, Chile	Individual Women's Foil	1st[30]
2015	Santiago, Chile	Team Women's Foil	1st[31]
2016	Panama City, Panama	Individual Women's Foil	1st[32]
2016	Panama City, Panama	Team Women's Foil	1st[33]
2017	Montreal, Canada	Individual Women's Foil	1st[34]
2017	Montreal, Canada	Team Women's Foil	1st[35]
2018	Havana, Cuba	Individual Women's Foil	1st[36]
2018	Havana, Cuba	Team Women's Foil	1st[37]
2019	Toronto, Canada	Team Women's Foil	1st[38]
2022	Asunción, Paraguay	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[39]
2022	Asunción, Paraguay	Team Women's Foil	2nd[40]

Grand Prix

Date	Location	Event	Position
2016-03-11	Havana, Cuba	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[41]
2016-06-03	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[42]
2016-12-02	Turin, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	1st[43]
2017-03-17	Long Beach, California	Individual Women's Foil	1st[44]
2018-03-17	Anaheim, California	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[45]
2019-05-17	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[46]
2020-02-07	Turin, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[47]
2022-05-14	Incheon, South Korea	Individual Women's Foil	1st[48]

World Cup

Date	Location	Event	Position
2014-11-07	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[49]
2015-02-06	Algier, Algeria	Individual Women's Foil	1st[50]
2015-11-06	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[51]
2016-05-20	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[52]
2017-02-03	Gdańsk, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[53]
2017-04-28	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	1st[54]
2017-10-13	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Women's Foil	1st[55]
2018-01-12	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[56]
2018-04-27	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[57]
2019-01-11	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[58]
2019-03-01	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[59]
2019-12-13	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[60]
2020-01-10	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[61]
2021-12-10	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[62]
2022-02-25	Guadalajara, Mexico	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[63]
2022-04-15	Belgrade, Serbia	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[64]
2022-04-29	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	1st[65]

NCAA Championship

See also

• List of USFA Division I National Champions
• University of Kentucky
• University of Notre Dame
• Fédération Internationale d'Escrime
• 2020 Summer Olympics

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lee Kiefer.