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≡ TRANSGENDER RULES IN PLAY ≡
A Friday afternoon post by USA Fencing was clear and concise:
“Given uncertainty around evolving guidelines and potential mandates from oversight bodies, the USA Fencing Board has prepared a revised Transgender and Non-Binary Athletes Eligibility Policy. In the event that USA Fencing is forced to change its current stance in accordance with oversight bodies or federal legislation, the new policy states athletes competing in USA Fencing-sanctioned tournaments must compete according to their biological sex.
“The policy will be implemented only if and when one or more governing bodies require these updates.”
The federation adopted liberal transgender regulations in 2023, allowing anyone to compete in the women’s division by declaring themselves to be a female prior to the season:
“Within our divisions, USA Fencing will not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, regardless of sex assigned at birth, or any other form of gender expression for participation in any division. As such, athletes will be permitted to participate in USA Fencing sanctioned events in a manner consistent with their gender identity/expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth in accordance with the guidelines listed below.”
However, USA Fencing has come under pressure since Stephanie Turner, a female Foil fencer, refused to compete in a scheduled match at The Cherry Blossom tournament in College Park Maryland on 30 March against transgender entrant Redmond Sullivan.
Turner explained that when her bout against Sullivan came up:
“I took a knee immediately at that point. Redmond was under the impression that I was going to start fencing. So when I took the knee, I looked at the ref and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. And I will not fence this individual.’
“Redmond didn’t hear me, and he comes up to me, and he thinks that I may be hurt, or he doesn’t understand what’s happening. He asks, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I’m sorry. I have much love and respect for you, but I will not fence you.”
So, she forfeited the match and was disqualified, Sullivan finished 24th in the women’s Foil.
That was only the start of the controversy. Last Tuesday (15th), a hearing was announced for 7 May by the U.S. House Oversight & Investigations Committee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) on the issue of biological men competing in the women’s category in sports, with Turner and USA Fencing Chair Damien Lehfeldt to appear. USA Fencing has said it will cooperate with the government’s inquiry.
Back on 4 April, the U.S. Department of Education announced a “Title IX Special Investigations Team” combining resources from the Education and Justice departments, and enforcing President Donald Trump’s 5 February Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports.”
Against this backdrop and on the same day that the House sub-committee hearing was announced, the USA Fencing Board adopted a “back-up” transgender policy-in-waiting on 15 April:
“This policy was adopted preemptively, under the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act, as USA Fencing is required to align its athlete eligibility policies — known as the ‘right to compete’ — with standards set by international federations and oversight bodies, such as the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC), International Olympic Committee (IOC), and International Fencing Federation (FIE), and their Paralympic equivalents. Although USA Fencing does not receive federal funding, it fully respects and adheres to applicable federal law.
“USA Fencing’s current policy remains in place, and eligibility standards remain in effect until we receive guidance to implement the updated policy from oversight bodies such as the USOPC, IOC, FIE, World Para Fencing (WPF), International Paralympic Committee (IPC), or other applicable bodies.”
Now it gets complicated:
● The new policy-in-waiting is clear enough:
“If implemented, the new policy outlines the following:
“The Women’s Category will be open exclusively to athletes of the female sex.
“The Men’s Category will be open to all other athletes who are otherwise eligible for competition.
“These eligibility standards will apply uniformly across all sanctioned competition levels, including Division I, IA, II, III, Junior, Cadet, Youth, Veteran, and all other sanctioned categories.”
● As for a governing body telling USA Fencing what to do, that’s a problem.
The International Olympic Committee’s current “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” – adopted in 2021 – adopts no specific rules, but leaves the question to the International Federations.
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee is no more than a bystander, as reiterated by USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland last week during a news conference:
“Predominantly, [it’s] important to recognize that the USOPC does not define eligibility criteria for events that are not our jurisdiction. So, typically speaking, at an international level, the International Federations will define eligibility criteria for the events in which they own jurisdiction, World Cups, World Championships, etc., and the National Governing Bodies, domestically, would define eligibility criteria for their events. In some cases, those may be elite-level events, national championships and things; in other cases, those may be lower-level, grass-roots, youth-sport competitions and things of that nature.
“So, we do not have, nor will we have an eligibility policy. It wouldn’t be appropriate, it’s not our role to take on that position.”
That brings us to the Federation Internationale de Escrime (FIE), which has no transgender policy and is effectively rudderless under caretaker “leadership.” The five-time elected President, Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov – who won by 120-26 at the FIE Congress on 30 November 2024 – suspended himself from his responsibilities a day later and continued the interim administration of Greek Emmanuel Katsiadakis.
So, there is no one in the normal chain of command above USA Fencing to tell them to implement their stand-by policy.
Except for the Trump Administration, which is clear; from the Executive Order:
“The Secretary of State shall use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”
Observed: The USA Fencing Board’s rapid-fire adoption of this new policy-in-waiting allows it to say it needs only to be instructed by the IOC or USOPC to change their rules, something neither organization wants to get involved in.
This is especially true since IOC President-elect Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) has said she will convene a discussion on the protection of the women’s category soon after taking office on 23 June 2025.
The obvious choice to implement a new policy is the FIE, which is effectively in hibernation and has been silent on this issue forever.
So, USA Fencing Chair Lehfeldt can expect some harsh questioning on 7 May, unless the federation decides to adopt its policy-in-waiting in the meantime, as a signal of cooperation with Executive Order 14201.
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