Fencer disqualified for refusing to fight trans opponent

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Stephanie Turner discarded her mask and took a knee in protest ahead of her bout against opponent Redmond Sullivan, who is transgender.

I think even King Solomon would have dilemma with this. Should sports that involve physical prowess have a separate tournament that is "open gender"? I don't think trans athletes should be forced to choose.

I think her behaviour could be understandable if it was a boxing match and she was afraid to meet a bigger and probably hard hitting opponent, but I think this is ridiculus in fencing. I think a big problem when it comes to transgender athletes is that people take sport competions way to serious. It's called "playing" basketball etc for a reason.

I did post several years ago that athletes could be classed under testosterone levels and muscle gauging for sports like boxing or weightlifting where there are safety issues.

Fencing is borderline, I assume fencers born as males are going to be faster?

In many sports, especially those requiring quick thinking or movements, women are at least on par if not at an advantage. Brute strength and size are the specific factors that benefit men in sports.

Anyone who has been taking female hormone therapy for over a year will have the muscles and fat percentage of a woman rather than a man. At that point, height or larger skeletal frame is actually more likely to be disadvantageous.

Meanwhile, we're talking about a handful of athletes out of 100,000. Sexual abuse and assault by men (who present themselves as men) is a much bigger issue for female athletes, but somehow that doesn't get talked about as much anymore. Funny how that works.

I got curious enough to look up some of the questions and statements made in this thread.

As mentioned, fencing is usually a mixed-gender sport. While some leagues are genders specific, most fencing leagues already have men and women fencing against each other, and co-ed fencing is a common and accepted practice in most cases. Fencing is very heavily technique-based, and not something you can brute your way through.

The trans-person whom she forfeited against only ended up ranking 25th in the event, out of 39 total competitors - so it's not like they blew away the competition - they ranked in the bottom half. 24 other fencers were still better. Even if we grant that the trans-athlete had an unspecified "unfair advantage" in some manner over their cis-female opponent, given that 24 other women still beat the trans-athlete, I don't think it was "the trans person" that was preventing her from winning.

Additionally, while yes, physical muscle training can improve one's strength, even in the face of taking female hormones, the biological mechanism for this is identical to how anyone can get stronger if they work out, and a trans woman on a female hormone regiment would not typically gain muscle at the same rate they would have with their original male hormone levels, nor would they necessarily be able to re-attain their previous peak strength, due to other biological changes when one takes a female hormone regiment, such as reduced bone density.

Something like size or muscles isn't always a universal advantage. Bigger muscles and a heavier build reduce speed, flexibility, range of motion, and mobility. A bigger person burns more energy doing the same amount of work, just due to having more mass to lug around. The more you involve technique, the less strength and size matter. Like david and goliath - basic strategy - you don't meet strength with strength, you counter it with technique and speed. And that's aside from the fact that size does not always equal strength, nor do they provide the same type of advantage.

Looping right back around to the main topic - fencing, is very heavily technique based. The blades are really whiffy, so it's not like being stronger lets you block or parry or deflect any better - being better at fencing and using the right technique is what matters. You don't get to attack your opponent with anything other than the foil. There's no real way to take advantage of being stronger or bigger. If anything, being bigger makes you a larger target, and possibly slower than a smaller opponent of similar skill.

Odds are the fencing association that allowed the trans-athlete to join took all this into consideration.

Equally likely, Stephanie probably just doesn't like trans people, and saw an opportunity to make a scene - cos it sure doesn't seem like she was going to win, so at least she got some consolation fame.

She has previously won matches against men in mixed gender competitions.

^^^ No excuse really, trying to appeal to the anti-trans elements...

Reminds me of the German sports bodies in 1936 complaining about Jesse Owens