U.S. fencing’s ‘Wreck-It Ralfs’ reflect on team bond, future after historic women’s team foil victory

Their fight for gold showed. In the Olympic team event, each member gained critical leads in different bouts for the U.S. They were on fire and having a blast on and off the piste.

“We were absolutely vibing yesterday,” Kiefer said. “All of us had so much fun. Even in between bouts, we were laughing, we were playing games, and I honestly think that intimidated the Italians, watching us have so much fun.”

The team’s ability to stay lighthearted and present in the moment worked to their advantage. Despite the Italians locking in and starting the match with a fierce team chant that involved stomping while clapping and yelling at the Americans, they still lost 39-45.

Team USA has less ostentatious pre-bout routines.

“One thing that we’ve started to do is slap each other on the back. It acts like a kickstart,” Weintraub said. Between bouts in the gold medal match, Kiefer was seen slapping Scruggs, who likes to be hit hard to hype her up.

Since members of Team USA each play against the same members of the opposing team, they also share tips and motivational speeches with each other.

“My favorite part is the little motivational speeches I get every time stepping up or back in the [team] box,” Kiefer said. “That really helps heal me.”

The team has an undeniably strong bond after traveling and competing with each other for years. To strengthen their bond, they often play games with each other.

“We are playing this game called Wavelength, and it’s basically getting to see how well you know each other, and getting to know each other,” Weintraub explained. She also likes playing Catan with Dubrovich.

“They’re so deep in the game that we’re not even going to get into it,” Kiefer said of herself and Scruggs not playing with Weintraub and Dubrovich.

“It’s very competitive. We are professional Catan players at this point,” Dubrovich said. “We always bring that to competitions and play with our training partners and our coaches. We love it. It’s a great way to decompress.”

The duo even convinced Kiefer and Scruggs to start playing the Russian card game Durak — a feat in itself because Scruggs does not typically play games with the team.

“[The Olympics have] been really fun. I won’t say that in every team event that we’ve had, every World Cup, I’ve had fun. Sometimes it’s just a grind.” Dubrovich said. “But here, it felt really fun, it felt lighthearted. It felt like we knew that we could do this.”

Weintraub said that a lot of the fun had to do with the members of the team, who debuted a new name. They’re the “Wreck-It Ralfs,” which Weintraub dubbed after their coach, Ralf Bissdorf, who won a silver medal for Germany in the men’s individual foil event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

As for what’s next for the Wreck-It Ralfs? Returning to their lives prior to training for the Olympics.

For Dubrovich, that means retiring from fencing.

“It was a good way to go out,” Dubrovich said. “I’m excited to pursue other things that I’ve put on hold because of this dream.”

Dubrovich will be getting married to her longtime fiance, Brian Kaneshige, a Team USA fencing coach. She’ll also be getting back into her professional career and opening a fencing club with Kaneshige.

Kiefer is also planning to step back from fencing for a little by taking the next few months to relax, and remove herself from the intensity of the Olympics, before making any decisions. She and her husband, five-time Olympian Gerek Meinhardt, have been on a break from medical school since before the Tokyo Games.

Weintraub and Scruggs will be returning to college in the fall. Weintraub will be a junior at Princeton University after taking the past year off of school for fencing, while Scruggs will be finishing her senior year at Harvard University. The two have not yet committed to training for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but they are planning to continue fencing for the foreseeable future.

Although the Wreck-It Ralfs will not be returning in their entirety for the 2028 Games, the future of American fencing still looks bright.