Two years ago, Lauren Scruggs was thinking she had a solid chance of making the U.S. fencing team for the Paris Olympics.
She’ll be heading back to New York City after the Games with a gold and a silver medal after a fabulous five days that have seen her make history in her sport.
In the Grand Palais Thursday night, she was part of the quartet that conquered favorites Italy in the foil team final, securing a first-ever Olympic title for a U.S. fencing team.
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That success followed on from Sunday’s individual competition, when Scruggs unexpectedly reached the final and came up against her compatriot, Lee Kiefer.
The latter took gold, and Scruggs’ silver meant she became the first Black American woman to stand on an Olympic fencing podium.
The U.S. foil team of Kiefer, Scruggs, Jacqueline Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub started out Thursday in the quarterfinals.
They saw off the challenge of China, then comprehensively beat Canada, setting up a showdown with Italy, the reigning world champions.
The U.S. took an eight-point lead in the final, only to see Italy’s Arianna Errigo cut that down to three.
That put pressure on Scruggs in the final duel, but the 21-year-old from Queens again rose to the occasion, taking the next three points to close out a 45-39 victory.
Away from the Palais, another highlight of Scruggs’ time in Paris has been a meeting with Snoop Dogg.
The hip-hop legend seems to have been everywhere in the French capital in the last week, but he surprised Scruggs in a moment captured for posterity by Team USA’s social media team.
With her Olympics now over, Scruggs will be looking forward to a reunion with her girlfriend, Chelsea Wang, whom she met at Harvard University where both are studying.
Speaking of Wang, Scruggs told Outsports before the Games: “She’s been very supportive of my fencing career.
“She can’t travel to my bouts most of the time, but when she’s able to, she goes. She’s been a huge help for my Olympic journey.”
The fencing team title is the third gold to go onto the Team LGBTQ medal tally for these Games, following on from New Zealand in rugby sevens (with Portia Woodman-Wickliffe representing) and Alice Bellandi’s -78kg judo victory earlier on Thursday.
