Lee Kiefer

Kiefer was born on June 15, 1994, in Cleveland, Ohio, into a family of fencers and medical doctors. She grew up in Versailles, Kentucky, a suburb of Lexington.^[6] She began fencing at the age of six after watching her father, Steve, who captained the Duke Blue Devils fencing team in 1985 and was a two-time NCAA foil qualifier, compete at a local tournament. He then introduced her and her two siblings to the sport.^[7][8][9]

Kiefer attended Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, Kentucky, and graduated in 2012.^[10]

Kiefer attended the University of Notre Dame, where she fenced for the Fighting Irish and graduated in 2017.^[9]

Kiefer earned a bronze medal in women's foil at the 2011 World Fencing Championships.^[11] She placed 5th at the 2012 London Olympic Games, after losing to eventual silver medalist Arianna Errigo in the quarter final, 15–10. In the 2014–15 season she climbed her first World Cup podium with a silver medal in Saint-Maur.^[12] She went on to win the Algiers World Cup in early 2015 after defeating world No.1 Arianna Errigo, who had prevailed over her in Saint-Maur. By winning at the 2014 NCAA Fencing Championships, she joined her future husband, male fencer Gerek Meinhardt and swimmer Emma Reaney as part of the 2nd Notre Dame Fighting Irish trio to be named individual national champion in a single year and the 4th to be either individual national champion or national athlete of the year in a single year.^[13]

Following her win at the Long Beach Grand Prix on March 18, 2017, she moved into #1 in FIE world rankings, becoming the first American woman to hold the #1 position. She qualified to represent the United States in fencing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and reached the final in the individual foil.^[14] In the final, she defeated Inna Deriglazova, the defending champion from Russia, with a score of 15–13 to win gold,^[15][16] becoming the first American, male or female, to win the gold medal in Olympic individual foil.^[17]

She represented the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, in the women's foil and women's team foil, winning gold medals in both.^[18] Kiefer defended her gold medal in the individual foil, defeating Lauren Scruggs in the all-USA final. Her foil fencing victory at the Olympics made her the second non-European woman to do so, after Luan Jujie.

At the 2025 World Championships, Kiefer made history as the first American to claim an individual foil title, marking her first gold medal since 2018.

Kiefer is of Filipino descent through her mother, Teresa, a practicing psychiatrist originally from Tagum City, Philippines, who immigrated to the United States at age 10, and of White American descent through her father, Steven, a practicing neurosurgeon from Northern Kentucky.^{[115][116][117]}

Kiefer is the second eldest of three siblings. Her older sister, Alexandra Kiefer, is a former foil fencer for the Harvard Crimson who won the 2011 NCAA Fencing Championship and is now a medical doctor.^[118][119] Her younger brother, Axel Kiefer, was the 2015 USA Fencing National Championships Junior gold medalist. He also fenced foil for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, finishing second in the 2019 NCAA Fencing Championship, and is now a psychiatric resident after graduating from medical school.^[120]

Kiefer began dating fellow foil fencer Gerek Meinhardt during the 2012 Summer Olympics. They developed a relationship through competing and training together, bonding over their shared Asian American backgrounds and interests in reading fantasy books, foil fencing, and studying medicine. The couple got engaged in January 2018 and married in September 2019. Often referred to as the "first couple of U.S. Fencing," they have competed together in four Summer Olympic Games: 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024.^[121]

Kiefer is currently a medical student at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky, having matriculated in the fall of 2017.^[122]