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Fox News reported that Paris Epee Olympian Margarita Guzzi Vincenti and two other female fencers have initiated a class-action suit against USA Fencing for allowing transgender females to compete in the January 2025 North American Cup tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. From the complaint:
● “Because Defendant USFA’s youth and cadet policy authorized self-identification ‘without restriction’ and lacked any verification mechanism, biological males under 16 were permitted, and could have been expected, to compete in the women’s event.”
● “Defendant USFA also does not disclose to members or participants whether transgender or non-binary athletes are entered in a given event, leaving female athletes and parents unable to make informed participation decisions.”
● “On information and belief, Defendant USFA never implemented any system to monitor or verify compliance with this requirement. In practice, this lack of oversight allowed biological males to register for and compete in women’s events regardless of whether they had completed any hormone-suppression treatment.”
The suit alleges violations of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and named former USA Fencing Chair Damien Lehfeldt – who was Chair at the time of the January tournament – in the suit as well. USA Fencing replied with its own statement, noting:
“USA Fencing is aware of the class-action complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri on Oct. 29, and we strongly dispute its allegations. We will address this matter through the legal process and have no further comment at this time.”
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Lehfeldt, a long-time coach who was elected Chair in September 2024, chose not to run for re-election as Chair and Dr. Scott Rodgers, a Paralympic medal winner, was elected last week as the new federation Board chief.
Lehfeldt explained his reasons in a Friday post on his TheFencingCoach.com site titled, “I’m Tired, Boss,” which included:
● “When I stepped into this role a year ago, I did it because I love this sport and I wanted to help fix some of what was broken. I knew it would be hard work, but I underestimated just how much of my time and energy it would take. Between my full-time job, young kids, and using nearly all my vacation days to volunteer, I’ve reached a point where I’m simply tired. Add that year with the last quad spent with the Men’s team, and Jesus Christ, I’m exhausted, y’all.”
● “And to be even more candid: I didn’t sign up to spend my nights and weekends dealing with lawsuits, death threats, and distractions that pull focus from the real work of governing and growing our sport. I want to get back to fencing, to mentoring, to coaching, and to just being part of the community I love, not constantly defending it in courtrooms and comment sections.”
He noted the federation’s financial and membership successes on his watch, along with myriad technical and community changes to provide more involvement. He added that he’s not walking away:
“As for what’s next: I’m not disappearing. I’ll continue serving as an At-Large Director for at least the next year, and I’ll keep doing everything I can to support good governance and responsible leadership from that seat.”
And he said he will continue to support inclusion, including for trans fencers:
“No matter your race, religion, gender, gender identity, or socioeconomic background – this sport belongs to you. That’s not just a slogan to me; it’s a commitment. And even with the challenges we’ve faced, I’m going to keep fighting for a fencing community that’s open, accessible, and welcoming to all.”
Lehfeldt was pummeled at a 7 May 2025 riotous U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency which degenerated into name-calling between the Republican and Democrat committee members. Prior, pro-trans statements made by Lehfeldt were highlighted by Republicans and he insisted that physical differences between men and women are not relevant in fencing:
“Ultimately, fencing is a sport of strategy and technique. More than anything else, those elements will most frequently determine who prevails. And when it comes to strategy and technique, neither sex has any inherent advantage. For that reason, among others, transgender status does not confer any inherent advantage over a cisgender fencer.
“Indeed, cisgender women have beaten transgender women in 55% of the bouts for which USA Fencing has data.”
USA Fencing changed its participation policy on Lehfeldt’s watch as of 1 August 2025 to comply with instructions by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee that all National Governing Bodies align with President Donald Trump’s 5 February 2025 Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Women Out of Men’s Sports” and ban trans women from competing in the women’s category.
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