Fencing

Lee Kiefer made history at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo on Sunday, becoming the first American fencer to ever win Olympic gold in individual foil.

Team USA tweeted the news following Kiefer's landmark victory:

Kiefer won a tightly contested battle to take gold, outlasting Inna Deriglazova of the Russian Olympic Committee 15-13 in the gold-medal match.

The 27-year-old Kiefer is a Cleveland native who is competing in her third Olympic Games. She failed to medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London (placed fifth) and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (10th).

Kiefer entered the 2021 Olympics as a strong candidate to medal, however, after finishing second in women's individual foil at the FIE Grand Prix in Turin, Italy, in 2020 and finishing third in the event at the Fencing World Cup in Katowice, Poland, last year.

A four-time NCAA champion at Notre Dame, Kiefer finally broke through for Team USA after many close calls for the Americans over the years.

American men have won Olympic silver in the individual foil three times, with the most recent instance happening at the 2016 Summer Olympics when Alexander Massialas fell to Italy's Daniele Garozzo in the gold-medal match.

As for the American women, Kiefer is the first to win an Olympic medal of any kind in the individual foil event.

To take gold, Kiefer had to defeat one of the most prolific fencers in the world in Deriglazova.

Deriglazova is now a three-time Olympic medalist, taking silver in the team foil in 2012, gold in individual foil in 2016 and silver in individual foil this year.

She is also a three-time gold medalist in individual foil at the Fencing World Championships, and she won gold last year at the World Cup and this year at the Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar.

With Kiefer's triumph, Team USA has now won four gold medals at the 2021 Summer Olympics thus far.

Members of the Columbia University fencing team were informed Friday by the Secret Service they wouldn't be allowed to directly deliver a letter to President Donald Trump about his administration's stance on gender issues during a Champions Day visit to the White House.

Lions team captain Elise Gout told Scott Gleeson of USA Today they instead handed the message to a member of the president's staff.

"We passed the letter to a member of the [White House] press team, but it remains unclear if [the press team spokesman] will actually deliver it as he said he would," Gout said.

Fellow captain Nolen Scruggs said the team moved forward with a silent protest by wearing large white lapel pins for gender equality, per Jacob Bogage and David Nakamura of the Washington Post.

"The goal might not necessarily even be to communicate with the president but to communicate with the American people and get them to jump-start a conversation that might not already be happening," Scruggs said. "There's physical evidence that we did this, and just that alone is important."

They also provided the Washington Post with a copy of the letter they hoped to give Trump. It read in part:

"Since your time in office, you and your administration have proposed removing protective measures in Title IX that support survivors of campus sexual assault. Your recent Title X domestic gag rule has withheld critical financial resources from public health care providers, choking the access to family planning and contraceptive services. You have perpetuated a culture that conditions women and minority gender identities to be silent—to sacrifice the space they have every right to take up.

"Mr. President, we did not win NCAAs by sacrificing our space, and we will not secure a better future for this country by selectively representing the liberties of those within it. We ask that you recognize the harms to gender equality within the actions of your administration—be they by appointment, by policy, or even by your own language."

The Columbia fencing team, a coed squad, was among 22 collegiate national title-winning teams to visit the White House on Friday.

"And meeting these athletes—they're real athletes, I can tell you. It's a tremendous achievement," Trump told reporters. "And we're bringing many of them over to the Oval Office. I guess all of them. So far, nobody has turned that one down because it is a special place. They want to be there within 25 years, somebody out of here."

The Lions are a national powerhouse, winning three of the last five NCAA championships.

Team USA fencer Race Imboden took a knee as a form of silent protest Friday during the medal ceremony to celebrate the Americans' gold medal in the team foil competition at the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru.

Imboden explained his decision on Twitter:

The 26-year-old Florida native is a two-time Olympian who took home a bronze medal at the 2016 Summer Games in team foil.

He further discussed following in the footsteps of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the other athletes who've taken a knee during the United States' national anthem in recent years in an Instagram post where he called Donald Trump a "president who spreads hate."

"I chose to sacrifice my moment today at the top of the podium to call attention to issues that I believe need to be addressed and changed," Imboden wrote. "I encourage others to please use your platforms for empowerment and change."

Imboden teamed with Gerek Meinhardt and Nick Itkin to score a dominant 45-23 victory over Brazil in the gold-medal match.

Neither Meinhardt nor Itkin joined Imboden in his protest.

If you've ever role-played with a lightsaber, it turns out you were really training for a future sport.

According to the Associated Press (via ESPN), the French Fencing Federation has recognized the Star Wars weapon as an official tool for the sport, joining the Olympic-approved blades of foil, epee and sabre.

The swords in question are LED-lit, rigid polycarbonate lightsaber replicas, but they still provide the same effect for fans of the movie franchise even if they can't actually slice off a person's hand.

As the federation's secretary general Serge Aubailly explained, the rule changes are a way to motivate young people to participate.

"It's becoming difficult to [persuade them to] do a sport that has no connection with getting out of the sofa and playing with one's thumbs," Aubailly said. "That is why we are trying to create a bond between our discipline and modern technologies, so participating in a sport feels natural."

Lightsaber dueling could bring Star Wars fans out of the woodwork and allow them to showcase their skills on a bigger stage.