Olympian Lee Kiefer had to switch to wife mode almost immediately after winning gold medal

Lee Kiefer hugs her husband after winning the gold medal in Tokyo. (Getty Images)

Lee Kiefer didn’t have long to switch modes from Olympic gold medalist to wife trying to help make sure her husband was ready for his competition. Kiefer became the first U.S. athlete to win any kind of Olympic medal in women’s individual foil when she won the gold in Tokyo but the next day her husband, Gerek Meinhardt, was scheduled to compete in his individual event.

“I was so happy I won but also so stressed for him,” Kiefer said. “I had to get him to bed. He had been screaming and cheering and thinking about me all day. It was time for him to get in game mode and not celebrate what I had done.

“It was so stressful to watch him. I definitely am a screamer and yeller during his matches. When I am excited and knowledgeable about something, I just light up, especially if it also involves my husband.”

He didn’t win an individual medal but he was part of the U.S. team that took bronze later in the team foil so the duo returned to Lexington with two Olympic medals. The two have been married since 2019 and both are now med students at the University of Kentucky.

Kiefer took a break from med school to train for the Olympics but knows what returning to her third year of pediatrics rotation will be like in February.

“It’s going to be a slap in the face, like getting my head dunked under water,” she laughed and said. “It is going to be horrible. It was hard before I left. I need to start studying and making career plans. I will have to get back in the swing of things and talk to patients. It will be a wakeup call for sure.”

Her husband, who also won a medal at the 2016 Olympics, is not quite as far along in med school.

“He is still in the classroom. He is playing catchup now. He started his second year (of med school) the day ever his second event (at the Olympics),” she said.

The two got a brief vacation in Hawaii on their way back from Tokyo.

“He was doing class there, too,” she said.

Kiefer almost retired after the Rio Olympics in 2016 when she finished 10th after placing fifth at the 2012 London Olympics. However, she loved the sport too much to walk away and found the resilience needed to start medical school and also continue training and became the  first U.S. female foil fencer to be ranked No. 1 in the world by the International Federation d’Escrime (FIE) in 2017.

So what’s next? Will she retire or could there be a 2024 Olympics for the gold medalist who would be 30 years old then?

“That is a question everyone has. Med school and fencing are both so demanding and it really takes a toll on you to do both,” she said. “I have not made any definitive decisions about fencing. I might go to a few tournaments just to keep the options open. But I just want to enjoy myself, so we’ll see.”

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On Sunday: What does Kiefer hope her gold medal might do for fencing in Kentucky.