Kentucky is not the first place that you would expect to find a good fencer. It might actually be the last. But when two of the best fencers on Team USA hunkered down there during the pandemic, they had a good reason for picking such a remote outpost of their sport.Gerek Meinhardt and Lee Kiefer, who also happen to be husband and wife, spent the first year of their marriage battling with swords on a basement fencing strip they built themselves between hospital rounds and medical-school lectures.
Kiefer was in her third year at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, which meant she was waking up at 5 a.m. and going to work during the worst days of the pandemic. She’s one of the few people in Tokyo who regrets not being able to spend more time in a hospital around Covid-19 patients. Meinhardt was planning to start his first year at the age of 30 after his fourth Summer Games last year. The Olympics were postponed. Medical school wasn’t. By the time he got on a plane one
year after he expected, his Zoom avatar was a photo of himself in a sparkling white uniform. It’s not his fencing jacket. It’s his doctor’s coat.
GREAT LEDE!!!
That is awesome! Congratulations Beautiful
I think that's quite an accomplishment to win a gold medal in fencing, AND be going to medical school. Bravo! However, it's strange that you mention waking up early and going to work during a pandemic as if it weren't something most of us are also forced to do.
Kudos to her! I say.... May the wind be at her back....
Great American Patriot. trump2024
Great but can we focus on her skills as a swordsman and not let the pandemic steal her shine and accomplishment. Kudos to this great athlete. What a great win for her and team USA.
She is also a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. Go Irish!
Boy, does she has a needle.
She is the American athlete we SHOULD be talking about!!! Number1Olympian
amazing
'The Doctor Will Stab You Now....' God - a pay raise to your headline writer!
Wow! Congratulations. I barely had time to go to the bathroom during medical school.
Also, the first Asian American to win in that category. Conveniently ignored eh?
Wow. Now she is not a quitter. Aspire to be like Kiefer.
Is there an award for the worst headline?
so it can be done. enough with the excuses.
Hope she didn't get sexually assaulted when she returned to the team's digs.
I think you are brilliant ElonMusket+SirRichard but you can't beat my Top100. Orac, Dr Gorski is also brilliant-he's a BreastC Surgeon, he can't beat me. I learned that AUTOimmune-body attacking itself-SUCKED-by living through DeathValley alone-0 consults GoOHA💚🐝🔥save 50%
AMAZING!
Do you have to make this a Virus ad ?
Wow, what capacity! Brava!
Drats, foiled again...
A proud American.
Great headline
Proud to be a pinoy😍😍
☕️ Striving for excellence in full view 👏👏 Good on her 👍
In the 1970s, the phrase used to define such incredible accomplishments would be to call Ms. Kiefer a 'Superwoman.' Still fits.
tdzwilewski HERO*2 HERO to the 2nd power! We watched her fight! What a thrill!! Yay Lee Kiefer!
Fencing is my favorite olympic sport. I do not understand much about technique. It's the coolest sport. Congrats Lee!
Murica, where even Olympic gold medalists struggle.
Have you ever woke up and said to yourself , *G-d I'm still here.'
Healer and warrior 🙌🏽 Olympics
👏👏
A hero!
thanks
Do your research, man. Lee Kiefer grew up in Lexington Ky & graduated from Dunbar HS- same terrific public school as my kids. She didn’t just choose to train here- she’s from here. Also Lex Ky is one of the best-educated cities in the US - a charming, sophisticated southern city
I give Fencing 45/100 in TV rating. Swimming 86 Archery 70 Weight Lifting 75 Taekwondo 10 Diving 88 Table Tennis 90 Rowing 60 Boxing 90 Football 50 Volleyball 100
America. LeeKiefer: she was EnGarde! against Covid attending MedicalSchool FirstResponder gets the GoldMedal. Bless all the Olympians about the World. Lawrence Maddow. StephenAtHome ColbertLateShow.
That is one highly-motivated individual.
What does it mean the school? Do you need the meaning?
this is terrible news
Her mom is only mildly impressed.