MANILA, Philippines — Filipino-American fencer Lee Kiefer’s sacrifice of putting her studies on hold to compete in Paris Olympics has earned her another gold medal in a rare all-American fencing final earlier today.
Lee, a member of Team USA, is a medical student at the University of Kentucky. She was born in Cleveland.
She won the gold medal in a 15-6 win over younger teammate Lauren Scruggs.
Lee’s mother Teresa is a psychiatrist. She was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the US as a child.
Lee won back-to-back gold medal as she won at the Tokyo Olympics’ women’s foil match three years ago.
She is only the second American woman ever to win individual Olympic fencing gold next to Mariel Zagunis.
“My first gold, I was not expecting myself to be able to compete like that with the Russians and the Italians,” she said in earlier interviews.
“So it’s a pleasant surprise. I think I’ve grown my skills over the past few years and it becomes just a mental game every day trying to stay positive, trying to keep working at the details. There’s a lot of pressure that I placed on myself, so it was hard, but all the more beautiful because of that.”
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