U.S. Olympic fencer Margherita Guzzi Vincenti, as well as competitive women’s fencers Emma Griffin and Patricia Hughes, filed a class-action lawsuit against USA Fencing over the organization allegedly allowing males to compete in women’s divisions, despite advertising the events as “female only.”
The lawsuit pertains to an alleged incident at the 2025 North American Cup (NAC) in January in Kansas City, Missouri, and includes competitions involving athletes under 18 years old, Fox News first reported.
“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,” the lawsuit alleges.
“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,” the complaint continues.
The lawsuit further accuses the organization of not enforcing its own policy of only allowing transgender-identifying males to compete in the women’s category after taking a testosterone suppressant for one year, according to the report.
USA Fencing told Fox News Digital it is “aware of the class-action complaint” and “strongly dispute[s] its allegations.” The organization declined to give any further comment and said the matter will be addressed “through the legal process.”
Guzzi, who was on Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, said she joined the lawsuit to protect fairness in women’s sports.
“Fencing has been my life since I was a child,” she said. “I have trained and competed with the expectation that women’s competitions are for women. It is about fairness and preserving opportunities for girls and women who dedicate their lives to competing on equal terms.”
The lawsuit further alleges that USA Fencing violated Title IX by allowing males to compete in the women and girls’ category. The compliant points out that the organization allegedly listed itself as an education service organization in 2020 and 2021 in applications for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) during the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) receives direct federal funding from several avenues, including PPP forgivable loans, funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, and taxpayer-derived appropriations, according to the report.
Former USA Fencing board chair Damien Lehfeldt is also listed as a defendant. He did not respond to Fox News’s request for comment by time of publication.
Lehfeldt did not seek reelection and was ultimately replaced as chair last week. He cited “lawsuits” and “death threats” as a reason for his decision not to run for reelection, according to the report.
He has been facing backlash since April after women’s fencer Stephanie Turner went viral for kneeling in protest of competing against a transgender-identifying male fencer and was disqualified.
After the incident with Turner, Lehfeldt faced a federal subpoena and a congressional hearing in which he had to explain the organization’s transgender athletes policy. Former Olympic coach and board member Andrey Geva and former Olympic fencer Abdel subsequently filed a lawsuit against Lehfeldt, accusing him of making “false statements” during the hearing.
After the hearing, USA Fencing changed its transgender policy in July to only allow females to compete in the women’s category, according to the report. The organization reportedly changed its policy to comply with the USOPC’s new athlete safety policy, which cites President Donald Trump’s executive order barring males from female sports teams.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
