USA Fencing

If there were an international competition for awesomeness, without a doubt Lee Kiefer would win that, too.

The fencer from Versailles, Ky., not only dominates as a world-champion foilist but also maintains an exceptional GPA as a junior in the science pre-professional track at the University of Notre Dame. She's the only person in the world to win gold medals at six consecutive Pan American Games; she's ranked No. 3 in the world and No. 1 in the United States in the women's senior foil division; and she was just named women's fencing Scholar-Athlete of the Year by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

To top it off, she's humble, articulate, intuitive, warm and funny -- a truly splendid human being.

Following in The Family Footsteps

Kiefer's father was a stand-out fencer in the early 1980s when he captained the team at Duke University. Steven Kiefer, M.D., is a neurosurgeon near Lexington, Ky., and his wife Teresa is a psychiatrist. Their oldest daughter, Alexandra, graduated from Harvard College where she reigned as the NCAA women's foil champion in 2011 and is nearing completion of her first year in medical school at University of Louisville. Lee will take next year off from school to focus on training for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio and studying for the MCAT exam. Youngest family member Axel will arrive at Notre Dame this upcoming fall as a freshman and has already made a name for himself in international fencing, taking second place in men's foil at the Junior World Championships last year in Bulgaria ... more>