Biological male takes gold in women’s fencing Junior Olympic Qualifier

A biological male took the gold medal in women’s fencing at the Connecticut Division Junior Olympic Qualifiers Sunday.

Redmond Sullivan, a student-athlete at Wagner College in Staten Island, New York, who identifies as a transgender woman, easily defeated his female opponents on his way to gold in the Women’s Foil. 

Sullivan reportedly began competing in female sports at Daniel Hand High School in Connecticut, where he helped the school win the 2023 state championship in the shot put. Records indicate the Hand girls’ track and field team would have placed fourth if not for his efforts, where he threw the shot put four feet farther than the second-place finisher. 

He is also reportedly the only athlete to finish in the top ten during the school’s first year of competition in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. During the 2023 season, he finished no worse than third place in the shot put and discus at 14 separate track meets, while simultaneously competing in boys’ fencing. 

After graduating from Hand, Sullivan went on to attend Wagner College, initially competing in men’s fencing from June to October 2023. In June he finished 29th out of 58 men competing in the New England Division USFA Pomme De Terre tournament.  

However, by November 2023, he quietly transferred to Wagner’s women’s fencing team where his performance appears to have benefited substantially.  

At the Northeast Fencing Conference Varsity Meet in November 2024 he went 3-0, winning all his matchups against biologically female competitors. Earlier this month, he won two out of three fencing sets in the female category at the Seahawks Invitational, a fencing competition held at Wagner. 

Sullivan’s transfer to Wagner’s women’s division and subsequent dominance has not gone unnoticed. 

Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS), roundly criticized Wagner’s decision and the NCAA for systematically taking opportunities from biological women in favor of biological men. 

“The NCAA is repeatedly rewarding the replacement of women in order to champion men in women’s sports,” she told Reddux. “This ongoing pattern of discrimination is why we are supporting a female athlete’s lawsuit against the organization. Legal action is necessary to hold the NCAA accountable for its repeated failures to uphold fairness and equality in women’s sports, with fencing being a particularly troubling example.” 

ICONS filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in March on behalf of more than a dozen female athletes, including Riley Gaines and Brooke Slusser. Slusser is the teammate of controversial transgender volleyball player Blair Fleming who received death threats for her opposition to males competing against females. The suit alleges NCAA policies allowing biological men to compete against women and use women’s locker rooms and restrooms are harmful and discriminatory. 

As reported previously by The Lion, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls concurs with ICONS’ view, reporting in October that hundreds of women have had medals and opportunities stolen from them by biological males through the end of March. 

“According to information received by 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports,” the UN report details. “The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males… 

“Women and girls already have many odds stacked against them that impede their equal and effective participation in sports. In addition, their ability to play sport in conditions of safety, dignity and fairness has been further eroded by the intrusion of males who identify as female in female-only sports and related spaces,” the report concludes.