Lee Kiefer

Lee Kiefer
Personal information
Born	(1994-06-15) June 15, 1994 Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Residence	Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.
Height	1.63 m (5 ft 4 in)
Weight	45 kg (99 lb)
Sport
Country	United States
Weapon	Foil
Hand	right-handed
Club	Bluegrass Fencers Club
Head coach	Amgad Khazbak
FIE ranking	current ranking
Medal record Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo Individual foil World Championships 2018 Wuxi Team 2017 Leipzig Team 2011 Catania Individual 2019 Budapest Team Pan American Games 2011 Guadalajara Individual 2011 Guadalajara Team 2015 Toronto Individual 2019 Lima Individual 2019 Lima Team 2015 Toronto Team Pan American Championships 2010 San José Individual 2011 Reno Individual 2012 Cancún Individual 2013 Cartagena Individual 2014 San José Individual 2015 Santiago Individual 2016 Panama City Individual 2017 Montreal Individual 2018 Havana Individual

Lee Kiefer (born June 15, 1994) is an American right-handed foil fencer, four-time NCAA champion, ten-time team Pan American champion, nine-time individual Pan American champion, 2018 team world champion, three-time Olympian, and 2020 Olympic gold medalist.

Career

Kiefer grew up in Lexington, Kentucky; her mother is of Filipino descent, and her father 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. She is now a medical student at the University of Kentucky.

Her sister is Harvard foil fencer and NCAA champion Alex Kiefer. Kiefer also has a younger brother, Axel, who has fenced in a number of junior and cadet world cups, and who also attends and fences foil for the University of Notre Dame as of 2015.

Kiefer earned a bronze medal in Women's foil at the 2011 World Fencing Championships. 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. 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.

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. In the final, she defeated Inna Deriglazova, the defending champion, to win gold. She is the first American, male or female, to win the gold medal in Olympic individual foil.

Personal life

Lee and fellow US Olympic fencer Gerek Meinhardt dated since 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

World Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2011	Catania, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2017	Leipzig, Germany	Team Women's Foil	2nd
2018	Wuxi, China	Team Women's Foil	1st
2019	Budapest, Hungary	Team Women's Foil	3rd

Pan American Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2010	San José, Costa Rica	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2010	San José, Costa Rica	Team Women's Foil	1st
2011	Reno, Nevada	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2011	Reno, Nevada	Team Women's Foil	1st
2012	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2012	Cancún, Mexico	Team Women's Foil	1st
2013	Cartagena, Colombia	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2013	Cartagena, Colombia	Team Women's Foil	1st
2014	San José, Costa Rica	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2014	San José, Costa Rica	Team Women's Foil	1st
2015	Santiago, Chile	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2015	Santiago, Chile	Team Women's Foil	1st
2016	Panama City, Panama	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2016	Panama City, Panama	Team Women's Foil	1st
2017	Montreal, Canada	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2017	Montreal, Canada	Team Women's Foil	1st
2018	Havana, Cuba	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2018	Havana, Cuba	Team Women's Foil	1st
2019	Toronto, Canada	Team Women's Foil	1st

Grand Prix

Year	Location	Event	Position
03/11/2016	Havana, Cuba	Individual Women's Foil	2nd
06/03/2016	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	2nd
12/02/2016	Turin, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	1st
03/17/2017	Long Beach, California	Individual Women's Foil	1st
03/17/2018	Anaheim, California	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
05/17/2019	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
02/07/2020	Turin, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	2nd

World Cup

Date	Location	Event	Position
11/07/2014	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	2nd
02/06/2015	Algier, Algeria	Individual Women's Foil	1st
11/06/2015	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
05/20/2016	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
02/03/2017	Gdańsk, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
04/28/2017	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	1st
10/13/2017	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Women's Foil	1st
01/12/2018	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	2nd
04/27/2018	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
01/11/2019	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
03/01/2019	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
12/13/2019	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
01/10/2020	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd

See also

• List of USFA Division I National Champions

External links

• Lee Kiefer at the International Fencing Federation
• Lee Kiefer at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
• Profile at the United States Fencing Federation