Lee Kiefer

Lee Keifer is a triple Olympian foil fencer who won gold in the individual foil at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo — the first American to ever win gold in the tournament. She is also well-known in her sport for winning an amazing nine consecutive individual titles at the Pan American Championships (and ten consecutive team medals). She has also won five gold medals at various Pan American Games and helped to win a team gold medal at the 2018 World Championships (from which she also has two silver and three bronze medals). Her success has seen her become one of the most popular members of the foil fencing community; she has 42,000 followers on Instagram. Her most recent success came with an individual bronze and team silver at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo. She is married to fellow Olympic medallist and world champion fencer Gerek Meinhardt.

Keifer was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in June 1994. Her father was a keen fencer in college, which led to her interest in it. She studied at the University of Notre Dame where she joined the Fighting Irish fencing team. She first made an impression on the international fencing scene in 2010 when she took gold at the Pan American Championships and helped the American team to win a collective gold too. She and the American team would win gold at every subsequent Championship until 2019 when Keifer was finally defeated (but still helped the team to win gold). She made her Olympic debut in 2012, but it wasn’t until the delayed Tokyo Olympics that she finally won gold and completed her collection of major fencing gold medals.