Women’s fencer Stephanie Turner will be stepping back from fencing “for a while” after she was placed on a 12-month probation by USA Fencing for refusing to compete against a transgender athlete last month, a report said.
Stephanie Turner, 31, was disqualified from USA Fencing’s Cherry Blossom Open when she took a knee rather than fence Redmond Sullivan, a 20-year-old who was born biologically male.
The drama that followed the decision, which made national headlines, “has disrupted my training, it has disrupted my interactions when I go out in public, and it will certainly disrupt my competition because I won’t be competing in the United States any time soon,” she told Fox News.
USA Fencing slapped her on a 12-month probation — which does not bar her from competing — but Turner said she’ll be “taking a break from fencing for a while in the US circuit” anyway.
During her time away from the piste, Turner said she will join the movement to ban trans athletes from women’s sports.
“I will remain in the public eye for as long as it takes to resolve this,” she told the outlet.
Since taking a knee in protest, Turner said she gets “dirty” looks from some of her friends, including some her are part of the LGBTQ community but did not know how she felt about trans athletes in women’s sports, Fox reported.
“I’m aware of some of the negative comments that my friends have had, I’m mindful to give them enough space, but I’m sure that, in the future, considering I believe this policy and this ideology to be unsustainable, they’ll come around eventually,” Turner said.
Turner has been invited to appear before the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency to testify about the incident alongside USA Fencing board chair Damien Lehfeldt. The hearing is scheduled for May 7.
Trump’s Department of Education is investigating whether USA Fencing violated Title IX by refusing to comply with an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The Maryland tournament was not an NCAA- or school-sanctioned event.
USA Fencing adopted its current trans-inclusion policy in 2023.
“USA Fencing will respond and cooperate to any inquiry as required by law,” the organization said in a statement responding to the investigation.
Turner, who competes out of the Fencing Academy of Philadelphia and has been fencing for more than a decade, has said she usually won’t sign up for events where she knows there’s a chance of going up against a transgender opponent – but did so this time as a form of protest. Turner has competed against male opponents before, including a week before her protest, and has even beaten male competitors, according to the Daily Mail.
“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,’” Turner said earlier this month, notably not using her opponent’s preferred pronouns.
USA Fencing has said that Turner was disqualified for refusing to compete rather than her protest.
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