Tokyo Olympics: Filipino American fencer wins gold

 

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Lee Kiefer with her historic Olympic gold medal.

UPDATED: July 26, 1:120 a.m.

Lee Kiefer became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the women's individual foil event and earned Team USA's first fencing medal of the Tokyo games. She defeated reigning Olympic champion Inna Deriglazova 15-13 to capture her first career Olympic medal after finishing fifth in London and 10th in Rio.

To win her gold medal, the 27-year old Filipino American, a medical student at the University of Kentucky, Kiefer went 5-0 in her matches. 

She won 15-4 over Singapore’s Arnita Berthier; 15-13 over Canada’s Eleanor Harvey, 15-11 over Japan’s Yuka Ueno; 15-6 over Russia’s Larisa Korobeynikova; 15-13 over Deriglazova in the gold medal match.

In the final point of the gold medal match, Deriglazova, knowing she was behind, was aggressive, charging at Kiefer, targeting Kiefer's chest. The Filipino American took a lunged forward going low making herself a smaller target and brought her foil upwards to score from below.

Watch the entire match below:

After the final point, Kiefer ripped off her mask and shouted "Oh my God!"

"What just happened? What just happened?"

After hugging her long-time coach Amgad Khazbak, she looked for her husband, Gerek Meinhardt, who is also an Olympic fencer competing in the men's foil. He was nearby.

“It was incredible,’’ Meinhardt said. “I know how hard she works every day, how much she wants it, how important a part of our lives fencing is.’’

Kiefer, a graduate of Notre Dame is a member of the Bluegrass Fencers' Club in Lexington, Kentucky, is a four-time NCAA champion and a nine-time individual Pan American champion.

"What just happened?' yelled Lee Kiefer after winning a gold medal in foil fencing.

Born in Cleveland and raised in Lexington, Kiefer grew up on the fencing ramp with her family. Her father, Steve, was a fencing captain at Duke. Her older sister, Alex, was an NCAA champion at Harvard. Her younger brother, Axel, has competed in the junior worlds. Kiefer said she was inspired by her father, now a neurosurgeon.

"Before I left, my dad wrote me a card, and he said that we have been on this journey. We have done our best and our pot of gold has been filled all along as we moved along and just being here is the icing on top," she told the Indianapolis Star.

"I just feel so much love and I have so much to give back to everyone. My dad pushed me from the beginning. We used to bump heads all the time because we are both so competitive and demand excellence, but here we are. Thank you, dad."

Kiefer’s mother, Teresa, is from the Philippines and a psychiatrist. The fencer joins a handful of prominent Filipino American Olympic medal winners, including diver Victoria Manolo Draves, figure skater Tai Babilonia, gymnast Kyla Ross and speed skater J.R. Celski.

Lee Kiefer celebrates after winning her final match.

Today's Doodle spotlights Olympic gold medal weightlifter Tommy Kono

With the Olympics just under a month away, Google has replaced its homepage logo with a Doodle celebrating Tommy Kono, a Japanese American weightlifter and Olympic gold medalist.

Tamio “Tommy” Kono was born on June 27, 1930 — 91 years ago, today — in Sacramento, California. In 1942, at the age of 12, Tommy and his family, all being of Japanese descent, were moved to one of the United States’ Japanese internment camps.

While living there, Kono’s neighbors introduced him to the sport of weightlifting. From then on, he put his efforts into athletics, at least in part as a way to strengthen his body to compensate for his childhood asthma.

In the years after World War II, Tommy Kono began competing in weightlifting competitions, overcoming discrimination to become a critical member of the U.S. national weightlifting team by 1952. In both 1952 and 1956, Kono earned a gold medal for the United States in the Summer Olympics.

During his weightlifting career, Tommy Kono set a total of 26 world records. This fact is made even more impressive by the fact that he set records across four different weight classes, something that no other weightlifter has accomplished. 

Hand-in-hand with his weightlifting, Tommy Kono was also an accomplished bodybuilder, winning the title of Mr. Universe in 1954, 1955, 1957, and 1961.

Kono’s career came to an unexpected end in 1964, when he suffered a knee injury that prevented him from competing in that year’s Olympic Games. However, he passed on his insights to rising athletes as a coach to various Olympic teams through 1976. For his contributions to the sport — including the popularization of elbow and knee bands — Tommy Kono was inducted into the Weightlifting Hall of Fame in 1993.

RELATED: Google Doodle fetes Olympic diver Victoria Manolo Draves

The Doodle’s artist, Shanti Rittgers had this to say about this project:

"Although my main passion pursuit in life has been art, physical activity and sport have always been quiet passions that have rescued me from mentally and emotionally dark times. So when I started researching Mr. Kono's story and learned he began weight lifting as an asthmatic child in a U.S. internment camp, I felt an instant wave of awe ands personal connection to his journey. The more I learned about him, saw his photos, and listened to second-hand interviews, the more he grew in my mind as someone who always pushed himself to be his best, and wanted to be a positive light to others. He was like a shining star."

In today’s animated Google Doodle, Tommy Kono is depicted in action. More specifically, he performs the “clean and jerk” — a move that involves lifting a barbell and holding it directly overhead with straight arms and legs. To make it a proper Google Doodle, each side of the barbell has three weight plates, appropriately colored and labeled with a letter of “Google.”

"My father would always say weightlifting was 30% physical and 70% mental and his ability to stay focused with a positive mental attitude was his greatest strength throughout his weightlifting career," said his son in a statement to Google.  "He always encouraged positivity and growth and used phrases he felt would help you through life.  “Do what you should before you do what you want” was one of his sayings. That holds true for me still today."