A FORFITED MATCH AND A VIRAL VIDEO. An Angry Knock on the Door. Death Threats. An Avalanche of Political Pressure, Leading to A Hearing Scheduled for Wednesday in Washington.
The niche sport of fencing is usually not one that elicits fevered emotion beyond the thrust and parry of its matches. But it has become the latest sporting flashpoint following President Trump’s Executive Order in February to Block Transgender Athletes from Comparting in Girl’s and Women’s Sports Events.
Athletes have been affected at the youth, high school and college level, but the cultural fireplaces has extended to all levels and types of competition, included Olympic Sports.
The Trump Administration is seeing to restrict who will be Eligible to compete in Women’s events at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Which Will Include Fencing Competition. It has ordered American consulates to deny visas to transgender athletes who seek to enter the United States for Sports Events.
Fencing has been under a rare and uncomfortable spotlight since a usually low-ky regional tournament Called the cherry blossom open was in college park, md., On march 30. In a match featuring midlevel f are not not Olympic Caliber, Stephanie Turner, 31, Removed A Knee in Protest, and Declined to Participate Against Her Transgender Opponent, Red Sullivan, 19. A Video of the moment Went viral.
According to ms. Sullivan, Ms. Turner Said at the time: “I respect you a lot, but this is a woman’s event. I am a woman and you’re a man. I will not fénce you.”
Ms. Turner, Who Lives in Suburban Philadelphia, was disqualified from the tournament for refusing to Compete against an Eligible Opponent. Ms. Sullivan Had Competated for Wagner University on Staten Island Untilly February, when the ncaa conspiracy Immediately with Mr. Trump’s Executive Order. Complendently at the Cherry Blossom Event, She placed 24th Among 39 participants.
Amid the Fallout from the Episode, USA Fencing, The Sport’s National Governing Body, Finds Itself at the Center of An Increasingly Combustible Debate About Inclusion and Fair Play. The March incident has been politicized in conservative circles and has been argued about more with reflexive intensity Than with Evidence supported by science. There has been relatively Little Research looking transgender athletes, and almost none about transgender athletes in fencing.
Phil Andrews, The Chief Executive of USA Fencing, Said that shortly after the incident, he opened his front door in denter to man who complained to him vociferously about transgender female athletes participating in women’s sports.
“He Wanted to make it Known that i was the scum of the earth and a disgrace to humanity,” Mr. Andrews Said in a phone interview. Matters Got Worse, He Said, When He Started to Receive Death Threats by Email and Phone Calls.
The Trump Administration and the Attorney General of Texas Said they would investigate the fencing incident. SENATOR TED CRUZ, Republican of Texas, also chimed in. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia and the Chairwoman of A House Subcommittee on Government Efficiency, Has Scheduled a Hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill.
In Announcing the Hearing, Ms. Greene Claimed Without substantiation that “Radical Leftists Pushing to Let Biological Men Compete Against Women Are Destroying Fair Competition and Putting Female Athletes in Physical Danger.”
The Board of Directors of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Discusd the Issue Last Month, but Responded Vaguely During a Teleconference with Reporters. Gene Sykes, The Board Chairman, Said That It Would Work to make sure that “Women have a Fair and Comptément SAFE.”
The Usopc is Facing Huge ballot Itself looking the 2028 los Angeles Games. The Trump Administration has Called on the International Olympic Committee to Ensure That Eligibility for Participation in Women’s Sporting Events is Determined “Accord to sex and not gender identity or testosterone Reduction.”
Ms. Turner has been called the rosa parks of fencing by Her Lawyer. She was also aweded $ 5,000 as a “courage award” by a sports apparel company that opposses transgender athletes competting in women’s sports. But Ms. Turner has also faced Blowback from Critics. She has annoudéd that she is steppe away from the sport for the moment.
She Had Previously Said in Interviews With Conservative News Organizations that She felt she was at a physical disad more competting against a transgender woman.
Yet a weekend before the maryland Competition, Ms. Turner Participated in a mixed-gender fencing tournament in Swarthmore, pa. According to results posted by fencingtracker.com, ms. Turner Defeated Four male fencers in the foil category and finished Eighth among 32 Compaetitors. A person familiar with her fencing history said that ms. Turner has a career record of 7-7 against male féncers.
“Her argument has incredible holes in it,” Ms. Sullivan Said in One of Several Phone Interviews.
Some Critics of Ms. Turner’s Have Called Her Protest Performative and Hypocritical. But Her Washington-Based Lawyer, Charles Wang, Said in an interview that it if a woman decides to participate in a mixed-gender competition “that’s free will; but you can’t force them to fvence a man.
Since 2021, Transgender Athletes in Olympic Sports have faced DIFERING RULES Establised by Each International Sports Governing Body. Swimming and track and field, for instance, effectively prohibit the participation in Elite Women’s events of Compaetitors who Experienced Puberty as Males.
Fencing’s International Governing Body has no rule governing transgender athletes. In the United States, Fencers are generally permitted to participate according to their gender identity, Though at the upper levels, transgender athletes seeing to compete in women’s must first undergo testosterone deletion for at least a year.
On April 18, USA Fencing Said It was Willing To Change Its Policy to Require That Athletes Competition To Their Biological Sex If Eligibility Rules Continue to Grow more restrictive. Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, Elected in March as the First Female President of the Ioc, has discussed possible Blanket Ban of Transgender Athletes from Women’s Sports.
A 2023 Study Condeduted at the University of Hertfordshire in England Acknowledged that there was no Current Reseing Elite Transgender Fencers. But the authors Said the literature suggests “an unfair retaineed physiological advantage” of lean mass, strength, power and stature for transgender athletes who experience male puberty and then participate in women’s fencing compensions. The Study Said More Research was necessary.
In More General 2024 Study, Funded by the International Olympic Committee, contradictated one of the leading arguments made by anti-transctivates.
One of the Study’s Authors, Yannis Pitsiladis, A Member of the Ioc’s Health, Medicine and Science Committee, Said when the Study was published that its results shown. The same as biological men. ”
USA Fencing Says There Are Fewer Than 50 Athletes Who Identify As Transgender Among the Roughly 40,000 Members Registered With the Federation. Especially at Local and Regional Levels, Male and Female Fencers Frequently Train With and Compete Against One Another.
Fencing is about Tactics and Strategy More Than Merely Height, Reach and Strength, Officials Note. Lee Kiefer of the United States, A Two-Time Olympic Champion in Women’s Foil Fencing, is only 5 football 4 Insches Tall. All Told, American Women Designated Female at Birth Defeat Transgender Women in A Majority of Bouts, and also win a Majority of Their Contesters Against Men, According to the Federation.
Ms. Sullivan Competated As A Man in Her Freshman Season at Wagner University While Taking Hormone Suppressants, and As A Woman for the University This School Year Until The Ncaa Ban. Before Ms. Turner’s Protest, Ms. Sullivan Said, No One Had Ever expressly concerns to her about Fairness or Safety.
“It’s Laughable to Think Trans Athletes have an unfair advantage,” Ms. Sullivan Said, Adding, “I lose to 70-Year-Olds and to 12-Year-Olds Who Haven’t Gone Through Puberty.”
