Wonder Woman of the Week: Lee Kiefer

At 5’4” and 105 lbs, one American sword fighter stands at the top of her sport as one of the greatest female athletes of modern fencing. She competed in her first Olympics while she was still in high school, dominates in NCAA at the University of Notre Dame, and is an invaluable member of Team USA. The Wonder Woman of the Week is US foil fencer Lee Kiefer.

Lee Kiefer grew up in Lexington, Kentucky to two parents in the medical profession. She was a senior in high school when she qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. She was so young, that at the closing ceremony- as Kiefer joked- she had to ask her fellow athletes who some of the performers were. At the Olympics, Kiefer competed in front of a whopping crown of twenty friends and family who came to watch. [1]

No one had heard of Kiefer before the 2012 Olympics. Even in the fencing world, people like myself were held up on names like Tim Morehouse and Mariel Zagunis. When the Olympics ended, almost every fencer in the United States had heard of Lee Kiefer. The Kentuckian competed in both the individual and team events representing the United States in women’s foil fencing. She took fifth place in the individual and helped Team USA take 6th in the team event. [2]

After her first Olympics, Lee Kiefer’s success continued. She took sixth place in the World Championships at Kazan, then fifth at Moscow during the 2014-2015 season. At the 2015 Pan Am Games, Lee Kiefer took first place defeating former world champion Arianna Errigo. [3]

Lee Kiefer doesn’t only dominate in the international arena. Kiefer attends the University of Notre Dame where she dominates in NCAA fencing. The key to Kiefer’s success in fencing boils down to her ability to keep a level head during competition. [3] As someone who coaches fencing, I can say this is always the hardest thing to teach young athletes and in and individual sport like fencing, the calmest athlete is almost always the winner. A special corresponded for Notre Dame summed up Kiefer’s personality into a single sentence. “To top it off, she’s humble, articulate, intuitive, warm, and funny- a splendid human being. [5]

To date, Lee Kiefer is currently the top ranked female foil fencer in the United States, and fourth best in the world. She was the first athlete to win six consecutive individual titles at the Pan American Championships, second US woman foil fencer to with a medal at the Senior World Championships, and was a member of the 2012 Olympic team. She represented the United States at the Senior World Championships six times, at the Pan American Games six times, the Junior World Championships six times, and the Cadet World Championships four times. [6]

Lee Kiefer became a household name in the fencing community after her debut at the London Olympics. She continues to be the most well known female foil fencer in the United States where she dominates the NCAA circuit. She’s a world champion, an Olympic athlete, and one of a handful of American women proving there’s a place in international fencing for female athletes. As Renee Peggs said, Kiefer is “humble, articulate, intuitive, warm, and funny…” Kiefer continues to inspire more young women to join the sport and is one of the many female fencers I use as examples when showing the girls and boys I coach what kind of person they can become.

WatchND. “Lee Kiefer- Student. Athlete. Irish.” 21 March 2014. Youtube.com. Accessed 11 November 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkFHm463nfo

“Lee Kiefer Fencing.” 2015. TeamUSA.org. Accessed 11 November 2015. http://www.teamusa.org/usa-fencing/athletes/lee-kiefer

“7:1 Lee Kiefer.” 2015. Escrime XXI. Accessed 11 November 2015. http://escrimexxi.fie.org/92/en/#/content/issue/1/column/28/page/0

WatchND. “Lee Kiefer, NCAA Champion- Notre Dame Fencing.” 2 April 2013. Youtube.com. Accessed 11 November 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcGpA_uk3xk

Peggs, Renee. “Lee Kiefer: Student, Athlete, World Traveler and Still So Much More.” 5 May 2015. University of Notre Dame Sports. Accessed 11 November 2015. http://www.und.com/sports/c-fenc/spec-rel/050515aac.html

“Lee Kiefer.” 2015. USA Fencing. Accessed 11 November 2015. http://www.usfencing.org/page/show/906404-lee-kiefer