Harvard Fencer Lauren Scruggs ’25 Earns Silver Medal at 2024 Paris Olympics

Updated July 28, 2024, at 10:08 p.m.

Lauren S. Scruggs ’25 won a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, as the Harvard fencer’s dominant run through the women’s individual foil tournament on Sunday ended with a defeat in the gold medal bout to fellow American Lee Kiefer.

Scruggs became the first Harvard athlete to earn a medal in Paris as she earned four victories before running into Kiefer, the defending women’s foil champion, in the tournament’s final bout. Kiefer dominated Scruggs as she scored point after point to secure a 15-6 victory over her American teammate.

In addition to becoming the first Harvard athlete to earn a spot at the podium, Scruggs defeated her Crimson teammate Jessica Z.J. Guo ’27 in an all-Harvard round of 16 bout on Sunday.

Scruggs also made history as the first Black fencer from the U.S. to win an Olympic medal in a women’s individual event.

But Scruggs’ Cinderella run through the tournament on Sunday almost ended before it began. She earned a bye in the tournament’s first round, which sent Scruggs directly to the round of 32 for her first bout: a matchup against Singapore’s Amita Berthier that almost got away from Scruggs.

The Queens, New York native quickly went down 2-1 in the round of 32, but found her momentum and scored five straight points. Berthier responded with four straight points to tie the bout at 6. The rest of the first period was a back and forth battle as Scruggs and Berthier danced up and down the piste. Scruggs took another lead that was quickly erased by Berthier as the first period of the bout expired with a 9-9 tie.

Berthier entered the second period strong as she scored three points in a row to take a 12-9 lead and come within just three points of victory. But Scruggs found her footing and tied the bout at 13.

The 24th-seeded Singaporean would not score another point as Scruggs won 15-13 to secure a meeting with Guo, her teammate and 8th-seeded Canadian fencer, in the round of 16.

The bout was a rematch of the 2024 NCAA women’s foil championship in March, which ended in a victory for Guo. While the teammates are close in real life, they barely acknowledged each other before the start of the bout.

Their meeting in Paris offered Scruggs an opportunity for revenge, and she quickly took advantage by winning the bout’s opening five points. Guo gained some momentum and cut Scruggs’ lead down to three points by the end of the first period.

Guo continued to chip away at Scruggs’ advantage during the second period, narrowing the score to 12-11. But Scruggs, who was consistently faster off the line, won the next three points to win 15-11. As she rushed off the piste, Scruggs roared into the camera as she secured a round of 8 matchup against Italy’s Arianna Errigo, the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

The bout against the three-time Olympic medalist proved to be Scruggs’ greatest challenge en route to the gold medal match.

Errigo and Scruggs traded the first four points of the bout, but Scrugg won the next six points to take an 8-2 lead over Errigo. The momentum shifted over the next 12 points as Errigo dominated Scruggs and the score became tied at 11.

Scruggs and Errigo continued to trade points for the rest of the bout. Scruggs took another advantage and came within one point of securing a spot in the semifinals, but Errigo again tied the bout 14-14.

In the final point, Errigo and Scruggs both lunged to the line and made contact simultaneously, forcing the judges to rule who had right-of-way — a set of criteria in foil fencing that the judges use to determine who wins closely contested points.

After initially rewarding the point — and victory — to Errigo, a replay review led the judges to reverse their decision and give Scruggs the final point of the bout. Errigo collapsed on the piste in defeat as Scruggs shouted in celebration.

Harvard is represented at the 2024 Paris Olympics by 26 students and alumni, including three incoming freshmen. By Amanda Y. Su

The victory over Errigo earned Scruggs a semifinal bout against the 12th-seeded Canadian Eleanor Harvey. Scruggs opened the first round strong, winning the closely contested first four points of the bout.

Harvey managed to win three of the first period’s last four points to cut Scruggs’ lead down to two points. The second period, however, was all Scruggs, who outscored Harvey 7-2 to take a five-point lead into the bout’s third period. Harvey attempted to close the gap, but Scruggs’ lunges and counterattacks proved too much for the Canadian to overcome. Scruggs eventually emerged victorious with a decisive 15-9 semifinal win.

Kiefer defeated Italy’s Alice Volpi in the tournament’s second semifinal to guarantee Team USA an all-American gold medal bout, the first time two Americans competed in the final round of the Olympics individual women’s foil tournament. Kiefer’s victory also forced Scruggs to compete against a teammate for the second time of the day.

The two American women fist bumped before the start of the gold medal bout but as they put on their identical star-spangled fencing masks, the athletes were both focused on securing a gold medal.

Scruggs won the bout’s first point as she pushed Kiefer off the edge of the piste. The two Americans quickly traded the next three points to tie the bout 2-2. Kiefer, who was competing in her fourth Olympics, never allowed Scruggs to regain the lead again. The defending Olympic women’s individual foil gold medalist dominated the rest of the bout as she twisted and turned her body away from Scruggs’ foil. With 50 seconds remaining in the first period, Kiefer already held a commanding 14-5 lead over Scruggs. When Scruggs managed to score a sixth point against Kiefer, the crowd erupted in applause for the struggling first-time Olympian.

Scruggs appeared to give the crowd a shrug, expressing appreciation for the spectators while knowing she was only delaying the inevitable. On the very next point, Kiefer secured her second straight gold medal in the discipline.

Kiefer and Scruggs, the top two foil fencers in the world, will revert back to being teammates on Aug. 1, as they join forces for the women’s foil team event.

The team event may give Scruggs another opportunity to compete against Guo, her teammate at Harvard. While the two fencers are friendly off the piste, it will be all business once they return to competition.

Guo said in an interview with The Crimson earlier this year that it felt a little strange to be rooting against Scruggs after they led Harvard to the NCAA Fencing National Championship in March for the second time in program history.

“Having to cheer against her is definitely very weird,” Guo said. “However, I’ve gotta represent my country.”

—Staff writer Thomas Harris can be reached at thomas.harris@thecrimson.com.