The fencer chose to kneel as an act of „peaceful protest“.
Another incident has reignited the media attention towards the debate of the participation of trans women in female sports. It happened at a fencing tournament at the University of Maryland, when fencer Stephanie Turner kneel and refused to fence against her rival, Redmond Sullivan, a trans woman. She was shown black card and disqualified from the tournament, following the International Fencing Federation rules, that say that under no circumstance a fencer can refuse to fight against a fencer admitted to the tournament.
Although the NCAA, the higher governing body for US college sports banned transgender women from women’s sports following Trump’s executive order, this tournament was not school-sanctioned, and it followed USA Fencing’s rules, which meant that Sullivan was elligible to compete.
