Lee Kiefer unmasked: Why the Olympic champ feels 'brave and fearless'
There's something about her fencing mask that makes Olympic champion Lee Kiefer feel invincible.
"Honestly, I love wearing my mask," she told Olympics.com recently. "I would wear it all day if I could because it makes me feel brave and fearless.
"But it's important to also take it off and show people I'm human - and vulnerable," she added.
At Tokyo 2020, Kiefer won the U.S. its first-ever gold medal in individual foil and is aiming to go back-to-back come Paris 2024. The Lexington, Kentucky, native is from a family of fencers, and in 2019 married fellow Olympian Gerek Meinhardt, a two-time Olympic medallist himself.
The duo has pushed one another to discover new layers to their fencing styles, Kiefer said: "Because of him I think I'm more of a dynamic fencer and try to be creative... tricky. And I have taught him how to be scrappy and dirty, and I'm so proud of that."
They will make a collective ninth Olympic appearance this summer (fourth for Kiefer, fifth for Meinhardt) in Paris, and Kiefer, who turns 30 in June, said it's a continued hunger to get better that has her eyeing another Olympic gold.
"I've learned so much," she said. "And I think I still have such a huge ability to improve my skills.
And about her Paris prospects? "I think I can win again," she said with a smile.
Lee Kiefer: Paris will be 'an intense scene'
Life has moved at varying paces since Kiefer's Olympic triumph some three years ago, when Meinhardt also helped the U.S. men to a bronze in team foil for a second consecutive Games.
They have both been studying at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine, but said their focus has turned to the coming Olympics in Paris, with retirement - potentially - looming thereafter.
"[We'll] most likely set down our foils and take a step back from fencing," she told Olympics.com before winning the Pan American Games last October. "But, life is also crazy. So I'm not locked in and I'm not going to beat myself up about changes."
Paris will feel much differently than Tokyo did, she knows, with crowds back at capacity, a different kind of atmosphere than she had when capturing her gold in Japan.
"I'm so excited for the crowd to feel emotions with me," she said, before adding: "I'm nervous for myself because I don't want to get distracted. So I think we're going to be just navigating a really intense scene."
But intense is something Kiefer is used to, especially as a little sister to Alex, who was always ahead of her in fencing. Their lone meeting in college went Alex's way, but that I've-got-to-keep-up mentality never left for Lee.
"Fencing has evolved for me," she said. "Honestly, I became good at fencing because I hate to lose."
"It's taken me to a lot of unexpected places."
'Gerek is my biggest inspiration'
The story of Kiefer and Meinhardt isn't just of the feel-good variety: These are two multi-time Olypmians (and Olympic medallists!) who have chosen a path of challenge, hard work and globetrotting - together. Kiefer is clear that their respective individual drives fuel one another, even as they've summitted the sport several times over.
"Gerek is my biggest inspiration," she said. "I guess one of the reasons I fell in love with him is because I love his fencing. It is so dynamic, so creative. And, yeah, I think it's made me a better fencer myself."
Instead of compartmentalising their lives, Kiefer said it's about a nuanced approach to the personal and professional: Yes, they speak about fencing away from training and competition, but in a purposed way.
"It's not about setting it aside... it's how we talk about it," she explained. "Sometimes we have conversations, that you know, are hard and how we [talk about] how we want to be better. And sometimes it's just fun and light.
"It's like any topic: You just have to have the right conversation at the right time."
For a few more months - at least - those conversations will, indeed, be about fencing.