A Week of Rage

This past week has been surreal.

In the wake of voicing my support for trans fencers, my name’s been in the news, and with that visibility has come an avalanche of hateful messages. Strangers—people who know nothing about me beyond a headline or a soundbite—have taken it upon themselves to fill my inbox with vitriol. It’s a strange experience, receiving pure rage from someone you’ve never met, someone who wouldn’t even recognize you if you passed them on the street.

What strikes me most is not just the hate itself, but the uniformity of it. The messages echo the same talking points, the same buzzwords about “men in women’s sports,”—as if copied from a script handed down by someone else. It makes me wonder: do these people ever take a moment to reflect on the rage they carry? To ask themselves why they’re so invested in shouting down others, or who benefits from them acting like pawns in a larger, uglier game?

It’s easy to dehumanize someone from behind a screen. But harder, and far more important, is the work of empathy. Of asking ourselves why we react the way we do. Of challenging the narratives we’ve been handed and asking what they’re distracting us from.

If speaking up means catching some heat, so be it. I’ll continue standing for inclusion, for fairness, and for the idea that everyone deserves a place in sport—and in life. Because at the end of the day, the volume of hate doesn’t make it right. It just makes the work more urgent.

Spread love.