PARIS — Three minutes, three years. Which wait was longer? Was it the three trips around the sun since the Tokyo Olympics? Or was it the three minutes of the final relay of the gold-medal team foil bout at Grand Palais Thursday night?
U.S. fencing star Lee Kiefer said “we have been dreaming of gold for three years.” But she wasn’t the one on the podium piste at the end. Lauren Scruggs was. The Americans led mighty Italy, 40–32, and Scruggs had three minutes to hang onto it. But there were two problems with that.
The first problem was that trying to hang onto the lead was the surest way to lose. Three minutes is too long; the piste is too small. Stalling was not an option. Scruggs had to try to get to 45 touches, which would end the bout.
The other problem was named Arianna Errigo.
Errigo is a 10-time world champion—twice as an individual, eight times as part of a victorious Italian team. She was the top seed in the individual foil competition in these Olympics, Italy’s leader, and to understand what that means, consider:
Coming into these Olympics, Italy had won 49 fencing gold medals, more than any other country.
The U.S. had won four.
Kiefer won one of those, in the individual foil in Tokyo. But she was the No. 2 seed here behind Errigo. Italy’s Alice Volpi and Martina Favaretto were Nos. 3 and 4.
Then Scruggs stunned Errigo in the quarterfinals. Kiefer beat Volpi in a semifinal. Kiefer and Scruggs faced each other for the gold medal. Kiefer won, 15–6. Scruggs took silver.
But Italy was still the top seed in the team event.
“We have some unfinished business with the Americans,” Errigo told NBC before the team event.
This was Errigo’s chance to finish business. She needed just 17 seconds to cut that 40–32 lead to 40–35. A “U-S-A!” chant broke out in this extraordinary venue. An “I-tal-ia!” chant followed.
Scruggs switched foils. Errigo took off her mask.
Errigo scored the next touch. In 33 seconds, she had cut that 40–32 lead in half.
The Olympics stretch time like it’s Silly Putty. Some swim races came down to a few hundredths of a second. A tenth of a second in track can feel like a blowout. The clock at Grand Palais said 2:27. It felt like three years.
“You don’t want to be the person to lose the bout,” Scruggs said afterward.
Scruggs got the next touch, but Errigo was all business. Soon it was U.S. 42, Italy 39. The Italian fans were screaming. The clock said 1:49.
Scruggs got aggressive, running toward Errigo and scoring the next touch. It was 43–39 now, Errigo was on her knees, and the crowd at Grand Palais had time to think. Hadn’t Scruggs beaten Errigo already? Hadn’t the U.S. won gold and silver in the individual event? If the Americans won the team event, would it really be an upset?
An Italian coach brought a bag onto the piste. Errigo picked out a new weapon.
She would not score a single touch with it.
The Americans won, 45–39, and after the final touch Scruggs immediately threw off her mask, a winner’s celebration. But she looked stunned. It was as though her hand knew she had clinched gold but her face couldn’t quite believe it.
“I was very shocked [it was over],” Scruggs said. “And then shocked we won a gold medal.”
Scruggs, Kiefer, Jacqueline Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub had begun the day thinking gold. When they made the final, they were thinking of gold. When Weintraub subbed in for Dubrovich in the final, which was part of the plan, Weintraub knew “they had a lot of faith and trust” in her ability to help them win gold. But the closer they got to actually winning gold, the harder it was to believe.
“Luckily, I had a big lead,” Scruggs said. “It gave me some time to get my bearings.”
There is no better feeling in sports than achieving together what you could not do yourself. Kiefer already owned two individual gold medals, but a river of tears flowed down her cheeks as she sang the national anthem. Afterward, a reporter asked her about the doctors in her family; Kiefer is a med student at the University of Kentucky.
“They’re all here, so if anyone has any medical needs, we have you covered,” Kiefer said. “But I’m useless right now.”
The Olympics stretch time, but gold medals freeze it. Three years, three minutes—and forever.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Three Minutes Changed the Course of U.S. Women’s Fencing Forever.
