Former Notre Dame women's fencing captain Lee Kiefer added to her Olympic legacy on Sunday

SOUTH BEND — Former Notre Dame women's fencing captain Lee Kiefer added to her impressive Olympic legacy on Sunday.

Overwhelming fellow American Lauren Scruggs in a stunningly brief final, Kiefer completed her quest to repeat as the gold medalist in women’s foil. The final score was 15-6 and the match ended with 39 seconds left in the first period before an energetic crowd at the Grand Palais in Paris.

Three years ago at the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics, Kiefer upset Inna Deriglazova, the reigning gold medalist from Russia, before a small audience at a COVID-restricted venue.

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Witnesses that July day included her former Notre Dame assistant coach and Team USA women’s foil coach Anthony “Buckie” Leach, who died three weeks later in a mid-August motorcycle crash in rural Pennsylvania. Leach was 62.

Leach’s memory provided inspiration for both of Sunday’s finalists: Kiefer, a 30-year-old medical student at the University of Kentucky, and the 21-year-old Scruggs, a Harvard senior.

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“USA vs USA for women's foil for the Gold woo hoo!!” Kathy Leach, the late coach’s sister, posted on Facebook. “Buckie would be so proud of you Lauren and Lee!!!”

Kiefer, whose brother Axel was part of Notre Dame’s 2017 national fencing championship, spoke in November 2021 of the “emotional roller coaster” she and her family experienced after Leach’s death.

Along with her husband, five-time U.S. men’s foil Olympian Gerek Meinhardt, Kiefer competes out of Lexington, Ky. Meinhardt, who won a team bronze medal in Tokyo and qualified for this year’s competition, is enrolled at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine as well.

Older sister Alexandra Kiefer fenced for Harvard and won the 2011 women’s foil NCAA title.

How Lee Kiefer made fencing history

The diminutive Kiefer, using her long arms to offset a 5-foot-4 frame, outlasted Italy’s Alice Volpi 15-10 in a hotly contested semifinal showdown. That avenged Kiefer’s loss to the third-seeded Volpi at that same stage of the 2023 Fencing World Championships last July in Milan.

Kiefer also finished third at the 2022 world championships, but she has now joined Italy’s Valentina Vezzali (2000, 2004, 2008) and Hungary’s Ilona Elek (1936, 1948) as the only back-to-back Olympic gold medalists in women’s foil since the event was introduced a century ago at the 1924 Paris Games.

Fellow Notre Dame product Mariel Zagunis won the first two gold medals in women’s individual saber at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Zagunis, the only other American woman to claim individual gold in fencing, also won two bronze team medals and was an NCAA individual champion at Notre Dame in 2006.

In women’s epee, which was added at the 1996 Olympics, Hungary’s Timea Nagy took gold in 2000 and 2004.

Scruggs reached the gold-medal round with a 15-9 win over Canada’s Eleanor Harvey. Seeded ninth, Scruggs narrowly eliminated former Notre Dame fencer and current volunteer assistant coach Amita Berthier (Singapore) in the Round of 32 by a 15-13 count.

Now competing in her fourth Olympics, Kiefer finished fifth in women’s foil as an 18-year-old competing at the 2012 London Games and slipped to 10 ^th in 2016 in Brazil. She won four NCAA individual titles while at Notre Dame (2013-15 and 2017), with the last one coming after Leach’s arrival in South Bend in 2016.

Earlier Sunday, Kiefer advanced with a 15-4 win over Flora Pasztor (Hungary) in the quarterfinals. Kiefer also scored wins of 15-9 over Quiaqian Huang (China) in the Round of 16 and 15-13 over Martyna Jelinska (Poland) in the Round of 32.

Mike Berardino covers Notre Dame football for NDInsider.com and the South Bend Tribune. Follow him on social media @MikeBerardino.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Former Notre Dame women's fencing captain Lee Kiefer added to her Olympic legacy on Sunday