Americans Lee Kiefer and Lauren Scruggs made history once more.
In an incredible gold medal match, the U.S. won its first women’s team foil medal — and its first-ever gold medal in any team fencing event. Once more, the American team — consisting of Kiefer, Scruggs, Jacqueline Dubrovich, and Maia Weintraub — plucked gold away from Italy. Japan also won its first women's team foil medal when it claimed third place by beating Canada in the bronze medal match.
The American and Italian women’s foil teams entered Paris’ Grand Palais to the roar of the sold-out crowd. The audience was pumped up and ready to see if Kiefer and Scruggs could repeat the success they had in the women’s individual foil event last week, which ended in the event’s first all-American final. The crowd was full of Italian fans eager for their country to win a women's foil medal in Paris after Alice Volpi finished fourth in the individual event.
"We have some unfinished business with the Americans," Errigo said heading into the gold medal round.
The two countries had similar ideas when strategizing the order of fencers for each bout. They both opened the match with their most experienced fencers: Team USA’s Kiefer and Italy’s Arianna Errigo.
Kiefer had a slow start, allowing Errigo to score several touches before she took back the bout and ended it 5-4.
Scruggs stepped onto the piste next to face Italy's Martina Favaretto. Scruggs shut her out by earning the next five touches for the U.S. and ending the bout within 30 seconds. Favaretto wasn’t able to score any points and was replaced with Francesca Palumbo.
The next few rounds saw the Italians catch up slightly against American Jacqueline Dubrovich before Kiefer widened the lead again. Heading into the fifth bout, Maia Weintraub was substituted in place of Dubrovich. The replacement was a good move. Weintraub added an extra two points to the U.S.’s lead, and Italy trailed 19-25.
The Americans were able to hold off Italy 40-32 coming into the final bout. After Errigo was able to score several points to attempt to tie with the U.S., Scruggs decided enough was enough. She quickly earned the last five touches Team USA needed to win the gold medal 45-39. At long last, after 120 years, Americans had claimed an Olympic gold medal in a team fencing event — men's or women's — for the first time.
Earlier in the day, the bronze medal match between Canada and Japan started with the two countries going neck and neck for almost half the match. Canada played defensively until the Japanese started picking up points when they swapped Karin Miyawaki for replacement athlete Komaki Kikuchi in the fourth bout.
Japan’s Yuka Ueno created a five-point lead in the following bout to break away from Canada 19-14. In the eighth bout, Canadian Jessica Guo attempted to tie the score by earning several points through counterattacks to Japan’s Sera Azuma. Guo brought the score up to 29-32 with Canada still trailing Japan by three points. The two left it to anchors Eleanor Harvey of Canada and Ueno to determine the end of the match.
With less than seven seconds remaining in the ninth bout, Harvey needed to make one more touch to tie the match and go into a sudden-death tiebreaker round. The suspense affected her, and she got a penalty for a false start. Then she missed when she lunged for an attack. In the last three seconds, Harvey was unable to land one final touch, and Japan secured bronze with a 33-32 win.
"I feel disappointed that we lost, but I'm really optimistic about the future," Harvey said. "[I'm] really proud of how my team prepared, and I'm just really glad with the relationship that we've built with each other and with our coaches.”
Women's team foil medalists
🥇United States (Lee Kiefer, Lauren Scruggs, Jacqueline Dubrovich, Maia Weintraub)
🥈Italy (Arianna Errigo, Martina Favaretto, Alice Volpi, Francesca Palumbo)
🥉Japan (Yuka Ueno, Karin Miyawaki, Komaki Kikuchi, Sera Azuma)