Chaos erupted as several women protested the inclusion of a male athlete in a female fencing tournament over the weekend.

The male athlete in question is Annika Rose Suchoski, who made headlines in 2024 after coming in second in a women's fencing tournament despite only being in the sport for six months, the Daily Mail reported.

Suchoski reportedly towered over his competition at the Fortune Fencing Regional Championships last year, and therefore it came as no surprise that activists in California were ready to call out the six-foot athlete. Online posts ahead of the Women's Epee Foil noted that Suchoski was set to take part in the 40-49 women's division; Suchoski is reportedly 40 years old.

'[It] has nothing to do with the biological reality of sex.'

A video from the event at the Los Angeles Convention Center showed at least one woman was incredibly vocal about the ordeal but was quickly met with an onslaught of justification from staff members. A male staff member explained to the woman, "According to the rules of USA Fencing, this athlete is perfectly within the line, they are perfectly, legally here, within the rules of USA Fencing."

The woman then asked, "But why don't you oppose that as a man, standing up for women?"

"There's nothing to oppose, there's nothing wrong —" the man replied, before the woman began yelling.

"There's a man. ... There's a man fencing as a woman!"

"There is not," another man stated as he came into frame. "Please stop," the man said, but the woman continued to yell.

"He's a man!" she repeated.

"That is incorrect, ma'am," the second man insisted.

In a subsequent video, a female staff member said the policy in place was not meant to reflect biology, but rather operates under the "societal concept of gender."

"[It] has nothing to do with the biological reality of sex," she noted.

The staffer soon became enraged and encroached on the protester and asked if she wanted to "grab a handful" of her genitals in order to prove her sex or gender.

Other men, including one who claimed to be the female staffer's husband, attempted to intimidate the protester, while another remarked, "It's a shame you have so much shame in your heart."

Several men labeled the protester as unattractive and said she was disrupting or harming other athletes in the tournament.

Simultaneously, attendees and even competitors at the event attempted to block out a woman's sign that read, "Rosa sat, women stand[.] No men in women's sports."

Recently, a female fencer staged a protest when she refused to compete against a man at a women's tournament in Maryland. This inspired Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who sent a letter to USA Fencing, the governing body of the sport in the United States. Cruz asked how many fencing matches women have had against men under USA Fencing's governance and if any injuries had occurred in those matches.

Cruz noted that in order to retain its recognition as a national governing body, USA Fencing would have to comply with Olympic and federal standards, which included President Trump's executive order that requires women's competitions to be female-only.

USA Fencing told Blaze News its policy from 2023 justified the inclusion of male athletes in the women's category.

"The policy was designed to expand access to the sport of fencing and create inclusive, safe spaces," said Nicole Kirk, USA Fencing's communications coordinator. "The policy is based on the principle that everyone should have the ability to participate in sports and was based upon the research available of the day."

The organization will always "err on the side of inclusion," the spokeswoman added.

USA Fencing did not respond to an additional query regarding whether or not the organization would be changing its policy to reflect President Trump's executive order.

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