With their victory over Italy in the team foil team competition, fencers Lee Kiefer, Lauren Scruggs, Jackie Dubrovich, and Maia Weintraub made history as the first-ever U.S. team to earn the Olympic gold medal in fencing. The victory solidifies Kiefer’s status as one of the all-time greats of American fencing and brings Scruggs, a Queens native, to the forefront of the sport.
“Obviously, I started the day really wanting a medal, but you never really think it will happen,” said Scruggs. “It’s crazy to go through that whole process, being in front of a crazy crowd, getting that last winning touch—it was just surreal…It’s unbelievable to make history.”
The individual medals for Kiefer and Scruggs, and the team gold medal increased the attention paid to the sport of fencing. By capturing individual and team golds in Paris along with an individual gold in Tokyo, Kiefer became the first American fencer to win three Olympic gold medals. Scruggs is the first Black American woman to win an individual medal in Olympic fencing—she took silver, facing her teammate Kiefer in the foil finals.
Multiple sports that do not usually receive much press coverage have been in the spotlight at the Paris Olympics. The U.S. women’s Rugby Sevens team won a bronze, their first-ever Olympic medal. After the team’s victory against Australia, trailblazing businesswoman Michele Kang made a $4 million commitment to the Rugby Sevens team as it looks to grow the sport and provide improved resources to players and coaches.
“They were able to essentially find their identity, and that’s been a process over the last three years, since the last Olympics, which is a huge component to maturing,” said Phaidra Knight, a member of the Rugby World Hall of Fame and a commentator for NBC’s Olympic rugby coverage. “The other piece that was substantially important was that they were able to design a playing philosophy. That was this streetball philosophy…What this means for the future is great things. I think 2028 will be a remarkable Olympics for the U.S. women’s Sevens team.”
During this time, when women’s sports truly matter, the Rugby Sevens team, which had the only female head coach—Emilie Bydwell, played on the shoulders of those who came before them. Knight, a past president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, said female athletes have been resilient and determined despite limited resources, as evidenced by the equal participation number at these Olympics.
“For decades, there’s been this talk about America being the sleeping giant of rugby,” said Knight. “Lo and behold, it is the women’s Sevens program that has awakened this giant.”