American fencer Lee Kiefer made Olympics history on Sunday after winning a gold medal in women’s foil. Lee is the first American to ever win gold in foil.
Lee Kiefer won the first gold medal in United States history in individual foil fencing on Sunday.
Kiefer defeated Inna Deriglazova of the Russian Olympic Committee 15-13 in the gold medal final for the win. Kiefer never trailed during the match, beating the gold medal winner from 2016.
Kiefer is the third American gold medalist of the Tokyo Olympics.
Kiefer finished 10th in Rio and considered retiring from fencing to enroll in medical school.
Things changed soon after Rio though.
Kiefer did still decide to enroll in medical school at the University of Kentucky but without the Olympic pressure, she has thrived in fencing moving up to No. 1 in the world rankings in 2017.
Tokyo Olympics
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“I was like, ‘What happened?’ I didn’t fence at the Olympics like this, and now I’m having all this confidence and new love for fencing,” she said on the Behind the Blue podcast earlier this year.
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Kiefer is now only the second woman in United States history to win an Olympic gold medal in fencing. The first was Mariel Zagunis who won a gold medal in team competition in 1904.
