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Lee Kiefer

HOMETOWN: 
Lexington, Ky. 

BIRTH DATE: 
June 15, 1994

OLYMPIC TEAMS: 
2020
2016
2012

Event: Foil
Birthplace: Cleveland, Ohio
Current Residence: Lexington, Ky.
Education: Third year med student at the University of Kentucky, Bachelor's degree in science pre-professional studies from the University of Notre Dame (2017), Graduate of Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School (2012)
Club: Bluegrass Fencer's Club
Coach: Amgad Khazbak
Honors

  • Finished the 2022-23 season ranked with a No. 1 world ranking
  • First U.S. women's foil fencer to earn a No. 1 world ranking
  • Second U.S. women's foil fencer ever to win a medal at the Senior World Championships (2011)
  • First athlete to win eight consecutive individual titles at the Pan American Championships
  • Second U.S. women's foil fencer ever to win a Grand Prix title (2016)

Olympic Teams: 2020 (Gold - Individual), 2016, 2012

Senior World Championship Teams: 2023 (Bronze), 2022 (Bronze - Indiv. & Silver - Team) 2019 (Bronze - Team), 2018, 2017 (Silver - Team), 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2011 (Bronze), 2010, 2009

 

Personal: Kiefer, whose father was a former fencer at Duke, has become the most decorated women's foil fencer in U.S. history, winning individual bronze at the 2011 Senior World Championships at just 17 years old and adding three more podium finishes when she led the U.S. Women's Foil Team to a trio of medals at the 2017 (silver), 2018 (gold) and 2019 (bronze) Senior World Championships.

After winning four straight NCAA Championships for Notre Dame, Kiefer enrolled in the University of Kentucky Medical School in 2017 and began her third year during the COVID-19 pandemic while training for the Tokyo Olympic Games. 

In 2019, Kiefer married men's foil fencer Gerek Meinhardt - her teammate at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games as well as at Notre Dame. 

Both of Kiefer's siblings also are fencers as well with older sister Alex Kiefer winning the individual NCAA Championships for Harvard in 2011. Her younger brother, Axel Kiefer, competed on two Junior and two Cadet World Teams and went on to fence at Notre Dame where he and Lee were both members of the team that won the 2017 NCAA Championships.