Olympic fencer discusses lawsuit against USA Fencing over trans policies

Margarita Josie Vincente became the first known Team USA Olympic athlete to file a lawsuit against a U.S. sports governing body opposed to its policies allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports when she filed suit. Class action Against the United States of America on Wednesday.

Vincente’s lawsuit came the same month she filed a lawsuit against trans athlete Dina Jokic USA Fencing To exclude her from the women’s competition.

The organization faces legal battles on both fronts in what has been a transformative year for gender policies in American sports after President Donald Trump signed the “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order in February, prompting the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) to change its athlete safety policy to comply with the order in July.

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Alicia Klasik of Team Poland and Margarita Jozy Vincente of Team USA compete during the women’s EB8 table match between Team Poland and Team USA on day four of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Grand Palais on July 30, 2024, in Nanterre, France. (Andrzej Iwanczuk/Noor Photo via Getty Images)

But Vincenti is filing the lawsuit based on a situation that occurred in January during the North American Cup in Missouri. She claims that American Fencing intentionally allowed this Biological male Competing in women’s divisions while advertising events as female-only, including competitions involving athletes under the age of 18, with this information withheld from female competitors.

“We’ve found that transgender people are present at our events, and that doesn’t put females on equal footing,” she told Fox News Digital. “USA Fencing doesn’t reveal the exact number of transgender people in our sport. So, we’re left in the dark. We don’t know, when we step on the track, who we’re going to be fencing with. So it could be a fencer named Mary Wilson, and then we find out in the same moment, when you step onto the court and you’re about to start the match, that Mary Wilson is not a woman.”

Vincente said she herself did not compete against a transgender fencer at the event in January, but she had to face one at the previous North American Cup.

“I just had to move on, but it’s not about me, or how I feel about one or several matches I may have fenced with trans people. My voice is here to take a stand to protect the next generation,” she said.

In April, female fencer Stephanie Turner went viral after kneeling to protest a transgender competitor at an event in Maryland. I got a black card and disqualification as a penalty. Vincente says this same dilemma is regularly faced by other female fencers when they encounter a trans athlete.

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“Do I withdraw from the competition, do I refuse to fight, and therefore face a black card, disqualification from the competition? So, you see, USA Fencing puts us women in an impossible position of not winning,” Vincente said. “It’s been an ongoing thing, so we kind of knew that this was an ongoing pattern of having competitions always open to trans people. The problem is we don’t really know how many there are, or when they show up, and it only takes one match to make it unfair.”

The 35-year-old Olympian has been fencing since he was seven years old, and represented the Italian junior national team from 2005 to 2009, before becoming an American 15 years ago.

During her decades of competition, she has competed against men several times. She has no problem competing in mixed matches against male competitors, but for her, it’s a completely different game that she must be prepared for.

“As long as you don’t enter a competition without knowing that you might be competing with a male, that’s perfectly fine, but what I don’t think is right is having to do it while not realizing you’re doing it,” she said.

“When I compete against a female versus a male, there’s a difference in strategy and there’s a difference in physicality, obviously. With the male being stronger, the match has to be more intense.” [more] physical. Whereas when you fence a female, the match is more technical and more tactical, and it’s all about trying to trick your opponent. “It’s a completely different game.”

Data shows that most Americans oppose transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports, and the trend appears to be global as well.

At the USOPC’s media summit this week, USOPC Board Chairman Gene Sykes called Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports “in keeping with an international trend.”

“Fortunately, the executive order aimed at protecting women’s sports in the United States is very consistent with the international trend,” Sykes said. “The expectation is that this is where global sport and international sport will go.”

However, Vincente is aware of the opposition to this position, and she respects the other side. However, she believes their argument is rooted in “emotion.”

“People are very emotional about this topic. While, in my opinion, we should take a step back and really look at it from a scientific perspective and really see what the underlying problem is here. We’re not trying to exclude trans people…it’s something people take very seriously, and I think people often forget to look at the bigger picture,” she said.

Vincenti has her own message for trans athletes who want to compete with women.

“My message is that we need to work together. We don’t want to be a torn family. We are all in this, male, female, trans, there is no labeling here, there is only justice, this is our game, we want honesty, we want justice,” she said.

“If we all decide to put our political views and emotions aside, and all work together, we can all find the right space for success for all.”

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Margarita José Vincente poses for a photo during the USA Fencing Team’s media day at New York Sports Club on May 21, 2024 in New York City. (Al Bello/Getty Images)

USA Fencing provided a statement to Fox News Digital responding to the lawsuit.

“USA Fencing is aware of the class action complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri on October 29, and we strongly deny its allegations. We will address this matter through the legal process and have no further comment at this time,” the statement read.

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