A female fencer who forfeited a match against a male athlete said there are no options for women if men are allowed to compete in women’s sports.
Stephanie Turner of the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia was set to fence against Redmond Sullivan of Wagner College at a recent tournament but refused to participate in the sport against a male opponent, and she took a knee to forfeit the match.
An official approached the woman and gave her a black card, disqualifying her from the tournament with the highest tier of penalty possible.
According to Fencing Tracker, Sullivan competed in the men’s category from 2021-2023. Against his own gender, his best finish was third place at a May 2023 event. He began competing in the women’s category in the 2024-2025 season and already has two gold medals in just six competitions; the first victory was in December 2024 with the most recent being in March 2025.
Speaking to Fox News, Turner explained she had all the joy of competition sucked out of her as soon as she saw Sullivan’s name on the registration list for the recent tournament.
“I saw Redmond Sullivan’s name listed there, and I recognized this individual from a previous [online] article that had been written saying that this person was a man who had previously competed on the men’s team at Wagner and was now competing as a woman,” Turner recalled.
“From that point, I just got really disappointed … I just felt at a loss. I’d already committed so much money to it and training hours, and I was literally looking forward to this,” Turner added. “I just got really sad, and I started crying because this was the last thing I wanted to deal with, in my competition.”
USA Fencing responded to Fox News over the incident and defended its policy as being “inclusive.”
“USA Fencing enacted our current transgender and nonbinary athlete policy in 2023. The policy was designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive safe spaces.”
The statement went on, “The policy is based on the principle that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports and was based upon the research available of the day.”
The onus seemingly falls on Wagner College to enforce President Trump’s executive order that requires women’s competitions to remain solely for women, as the private school competes in the NCAA’s Division I.
However, things could get tricky for the governing body of fencing, United States Fencing Association, as it is officially a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
‘It’s happening in every sport and at every level.’
Turner explained to the host that if men continue to invade women’s sports, there is no where left for female athletes to go.
“There’s nothing for me, and there’s everything for him. Because I have no choice as a woman, as a female, in where I compete. I am a woman, and I have an athletic disadvantage to men. So I compete in the women’s division, which is where I rightfully am. But he has been given this opportunity to fence in the women’s division, and he can compete. He can easily compete in the men’s division.”
The fencer said the idea of expanding the women’s division only creates more opportunities for men and ends up restricting the only competitions where women can compete against themselves.
“It’s happening in every sport and at every level, and there’s really no option to go around this when there are extremists who take up positions within the authoritative body of the USFA.”
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