Lee Kiefer - Med Student and Olympic Fencer)
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UKY Video Production | 2019-05-20 BTB (Lee Kiefer - Med Student and Olympic Fencer) [SCHOOL CHEERS] [MUSIC PLAYING] ANNOUNCER: From the campus of the University of Kentucky, you're listening to "Behind the Blue." [MUSIC PLAYING] CARL NATHY: Hello, and welcome to the Behind the Blue podcast. I'm Carl Nathy, pleased to be joined in this interview by Lee Kiefer. Lee has just finished her second year of medical school at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. She grew up in Lexington, and she has some very interesting things going on in her life, including being a two time Olympic. I said, yes, summer Olympics, as in London 2012, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. And she is aiming to compete in the summer 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. Lee thanks for taking the time, and welcome in. LEE KIEFER: Thank you for having me. Happy to be here. CARL NATHY: You have a fascinating background. Tell us a little bit. You grew up in Lexington, and grew up in a family that had both fencing in the family and medical education in the family. LEE KIEFER: Yes. Fencing and medicine is all I've ever known since I was born, it seems like. Growing up, my dad, who is a physician, he decided that he wanted to try fencing. He hadn't picked up a foil, let's say, in 10, 15 years. And me and my siblings watched him compete at a local tournament. And then he asked if we wanted to try it. We said yes, and then almost 20 years later, I'm still here. Still doing it. CARL NATHY: Now, your dad, who is a physician, Dr. Kiefer-- and his first name is Steven, Dr. Steven Kiefer-- he competed in college at Duke University? LEE KIEFER: Yes, he did. CARL NATHY: He competed in fencing. Right? LEE KIEFER: Yes, he did. CARL NATHY: But then he had to kind of put that away for a while. And then he came back to it, and that's when you all got interested. LEE KIEFER: Exactly. I have an older sister, Alex, who was actually an NCAA champion at Harvard in 2013, I want to say. And I have a younger brother Axel, who competed this past weekend. He got second place. So, yeah, all of us very competitive, very high level athletes. Which meant there is a lot of fighting when we were younger because, yes, we are competitive. But it was it was a lot of fun. And now we have that experience together as adults. CARL NATHY: You went to Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. And how did you go about selecting Notre Dame University? LEE KIEFER: Mm-hm. Notre Dame has an incredible fencing program. They're known for having Olympic athletes, but also it's an amazing school academically. So on my college visit, just seeing that high level environment and then the team, they're like a family. So I knew that's where I wanted to go to kind of hone my skills and develop into the person I want to be. CARL NATHY: You mentioned your sister winning an NCAA individual championship, and your brother who competes for Notre Dame was second here just recently in the NCAA's. Now, as far as your medical education is concerned, after you graduated from Notre Dame, and you had a major of science pre-professional, you came to the University of Kentucky, how did you select UK as the place to pursue your medical education? LEE KIEFER: Well, a lot of factors came into play. After the 2016 Olympics, I was actually planning on retiring from international competitions. Obviously, medical school is a huge commitment. And so I thought to myself, there's no way I can do both. But I still had one year of collegiate fencing left after the Olympics. So I was like, I'm going to keep traveling internationally, you know, keep my skills sharp for the fencing team. And then, magically, I became world number one I was like, what happened? I didn't fence at the Olympics like this. And now I'm having all this confidence and all this new love for fencing, but I'm going to medical school next year. So I had some conversations with my parents, with the administration, and everyone supported me. I was surprised. They're like, you got to pursue this. You have a talent and there's an expiration date on this, and we think you can do both. We'll help you. CARL NATHY: Wow. That's fantastic. Now, let's go back in time. Because if people are just tuning in, if they missed the beginning. Now, the 2012 summer Olympics, that was your first Olympics. And when did you actually graduate from Dunbar High School in Lexington? LEE KIEFER: I guess 2012. So I had just graduated high school. And then I headed to London for my first Olympic games as an 18-year-old. CARL NATHY: Wow. And that must have been not only exciting, but somewhat intimidating, yes? Or is that the wrong word? LEE KIEFER: Well, surprisingly, I had no expectations on myself. And no one placed them on me because I was so young. So I went out there and I actually you know over-performed. No one expected me to get a medal, and I didn't. But fifth place was a great result, and I beat some great people. CARL NATHY: And then you followed that up in 2016 with a top 10 finish in the Olympics. And might add, through all of this, you have had to balance-- again, you told me you had taken a year off previously in order to get into the 2016 Olympics. Right? LEE KIEFER: Right. CARL NATHY: And then, now, you're just starting a leave of absence. And then you're getting ready. You have a series of tournaments between now and 2020, about seven tournaments around the country. LEE KIEFER: Mm-hmm. CARL NATHY: And based on the qualification points that you earn there is how you make the Olympic team for 2020, right? LEE KIEFER: Exactly. It's definitely possible to go to school and train for competitions. But if you want to do everything to the fullest, it would probably maximize my chances of going for that Olympic medal if I'm able to be rested, well-fed, go to training camps, get those high level bouts before I go to these competitions. So I think I'm going to separate school and fencing for a little bit. CARL NATHY: Your mom, who's also a physician, Teresa Kiefer, she is an M.D. Now, what about her and fencing? Has she been involved in fencing as well? Or just in support of all you? LEE KIEFER: She is our biggest fan. She is the person who will be up in the middle of the night watching the live stream. Most of our competitions are international, so we'll be in Europe, or in Asia. And she'll have her laptop out at the middle of the night. She'll be the one cheering for us all the time. But she definitely keeps our family sane. Not too emotionally high strung all the time. CARL NATHY: Fantastic. Now, talk about how these two things-- because fencing requires a great deal of mental and physical prowess. I mean, it's a demanding sport. It's individual, it's a combat sport. In case you don't know, if you're listening on the radio or listening online, and you've never seen fencing, talk a little bit about the equipment that's involved. LEE KIEFER: Yeah. Most people haven't heard about fencing. Or they've seen it, and it looks very funny. Because we have our full uniforms on for protection. Obviously, we're hitting each other with swords so we want to be safe. But there are three different weapons. One of them, saber, where you slash each other. One of them, epee, where you can hit with the point anywhere on the whole body. And then, foil, which I fence, which arguably is the best weapon, has some other rules. Where, let's say, if you initiate an attack, and both of you hit, it's the person who's being the aggressor, the person who's making that blade contact. So it's very, very complex, which is why it's hard to get a good grasp on it. But to get to that high level, it takes a lot of movement, creativity, strength. CARL NATHY: What about in terms of, when you go to competitions, we mentioned that the mental part of it-- do you get a chance to scout an opponent? Or when you go in, is that sometimes the first time you've seen that person in action? LEE KIEFER: A lot of these athletes, I have been competing with them for a decade now. So there's a lot of video out on all of us. So the night before, we'll know who were fencing against. And we'll be able to watch some videos on them, make a plan of what you do, what you don't want to do, against them. But then again, they're doing the same thing to you. So a lot of it comes down to how you're competing that day. Same with every other sport. Some days, your timing, your distance, in fencing, your point, is on more than other days.