Lauren Scruggs, an American left-handed foil fencer, won a silver medal in women’s individual foil at the 2024 Summer Olympics. This made her the first African American woman to win an individual fencing medal. She equally won an Olympic gold medal in women’s team foil.
Here’s everything you need to know about Olympic silver medallist Lauren Scruggs.
Career Highlights
Lauren followed in her brother’s footsteps when she started fencing at the early age of six. In 2019, she won her first gold medal in the Junior World Fencing Championships. She repeated the same feat three years later in just her freshman year. That was her sixth medal in the Junior World Championships across the individual and team competitions.
In 2023, she bagged an individual gold medal at the NCAA Fencing Championships thus becoming one of two black fencers from the United States to have won an individual world championship. Much later that year she came third at the Pan American Fencing Championships in Lima.
Scruggs competes for the Harvard Crimson team in collegiate fencing. Her qualification for the Paris Olympics was secured by earning bronze at the 2024 Absolute Fencing Gear FIE Grand Prix.
Life Outside Olympics
Lauren is a student at Harvard University and is majoring in philosophy. She is openly lesbian and dates a Harvard classmate.
She also belongs to the Peter Westbrook Foundation Fencers Club offering fencing lessons to children and teens who are members of underrepresented groups.
Next, Everything You Need to Know About Olympic Silver Medalist Haley Batten
