Lee Kiefer spent the last decade living a double life of sorts, splitting her precious time between fencing and studying medicine. Unfortunately, success in both fields came with unintended consequences.
Faced with the prospect of sacrificing one career for the other, Kiefer found a compromise: put her medical studies on hold and focus on her fencing full-time.
“I was trying to figure out what direction my life was going after Tokyo,” Kiefer said in an April interview with The Winchester Sun.
“I really wanted to keep fencing because I still love it and enjoy doing it. I felt like I could keep growing my skills, my routine,” she explained. “However, the biggest obstacle was the UK College of Medicine. I was not sure they would let me continue, which would have been totally understandable.”
Thankfully, the university was amenable to Kiefer’s proposal to put her studies on hold, giving her more time to focus on fencing ahead of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
