| Birth Date: | 27 January 2003 |
| Birth Place: | Queens, New York, U.S. |
| Weapon: | Foil |
| Club: | Peter Westbrook Foundation, Fencers Club |
| Hand: | Left-handed |
| Fieranking: | 4 (women's foil, August 2024) |
| Headcoach: | Sean McClain |
Lauren Scruggs (born January 27, 2003) is an American left-handed foil fencer.[1] Scruggs won a silver medal in women's individual foil at the 2024 Summer Olympics, making her the first African American woman to win an individual fencing medal.[2] She also won a gold medal in women's team foil at the same Olympics, along with Lee Kiefer, Jackie Dubrovich, and Maia Weintraub. Scruggs competes for the Harvard Crimson team in collegiate fencing. She has won an NCAA championship and is one of two black fencers from the United States to have won an individual world championship.[3]
Scruggs grew up in Queens, New York.[4] She was inspired to start fencing as a 6-year-old, after her older brother joined a fencing club in Brooklyn.[5] [6] She attended Packer Collegiate Institute, graduating in 2021.[7] Her older brother Nolen fenced at Columbia University.[8]
She is a student at Harvard University and is majoring in philosophy.[9] [10]
Scruggs is a two-time champion in the Junior World Fencing Championships, winning individual gold medals in 2019 and 2022 as well as other individual and team awards in 2018, 2021, and 2023.[11] In 2023, she earned an individual gold medal at the NCAA Fencing Championships in Durham, North Carolina, and contributed to a fifth-place team finish for Harvard.[12] In June 2023, she took bronze at the Pan American Fencing Championships in Lima.[13]
At the Games, she won the silver medal in the women's foil event, defeating Italian fencer Arianna Errigo and Canadian fencer Eleanor Harvey, among others, before losing 15–6 in the final to fellow American Lee Kiefer.[14] [15] This made Scruggs the first African American woman to win an individual fencing medal at the Olympics.[16] She also won a gold medal in the team competition.
Scruggs is openly lesbian and currently dating a Harvard classmate. She is involved with the Peter Westbrook Foundation, which offers fencing lessons to children and teens who are members of underrepresented groups. By qualifying for the Paris Olympics, she became the 17th Olympian produced by this foundation.
| Year | Location | Event | Position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 |  Paris, France | Individual Women's Foil | 2nd[17] | |
| 2024 | Paris, France | Team Women's Foil | 1st[18] |
| Year | Location | Event | Position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 |  Lima, Peru | Individual Women's Foil | 3rd[19] | |
| 2023 | Lima, Peru | Team Women's Foil | 2nd[20] | |
| 2024 | Lima, Peru | Team Women's Foil | 1st[21] |