A biologically male “transgender female” athlete has removed the championship title from a 14-time female fencing champ at the 2023 FIE Veteran Fencing World Championships.
American Liz Kocab beat 14-time champion Marja-Liisa Someroja of Finland in the Women’s Epee in Florida on Oct. 15, Fox News reported.
“I wanted to support USA Fencing,” Kocab said after the win. “I really did. Otherwise, I was actually thinking of stepping away. But the fact that it was in America, I thought that was important to support the USA. This is my way of saying thanks to USA Fencing.”
Sunday marks the eighth time the six-foot-tall, 71-year-old Kocab has taken a women’s title.
2023 Daytona Beach🇺🇸 Veterans World Championships – Day5
Vet 70 Women’s Individual Epee results:
Elizabeth KOCAB🇺🇸
Marja-Liisa Tuulikki SOMEROJA
Ibolya HOFFMANN🇺
Charlotta BOWIE🇺🇸 #fencing #veterans #worldchampionships #epee
📷Serge Timacheff pic.twitter.com/1hRa9FKQS9— FIE (@FIE_fencing) October 16, 2023
USA Fencing updated its policy for trans competitors in 2022 and threw open all its women’s categories to men claiming to be transgender females without exception.
The organization ruled that transgender athletes may “participate in USA Fencing-sanctioned events in a manner consistent with their gender identity/expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.”
USA Fencing added that the policy was an “important first step” in “fairness for all.”
David Madison/Getty Images
Indeed, USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews militantly announced that the organization would stick with its rules no matter how the issue “evolves,” meaning that even if other sports begin to pull back from allowing male-born competitors to compete as women — and many are starting to do — his group would stick with transgenders.
“To be clear, even as this issue evolves, our support of transgender athletes will not waver,” Andrews said.
The only requirement for biologically male fencers to compete as women is that they have to show documentation that they completed one year of testosterone suppression treatments before competing.
It isn’t clear when Kocab claimed to have “transitioned,” but in college as “Greg Kocab,” he was a member of the 1972 NCAA National Championship team and was an All-American in 1973.
Women’s sports activist Riley Gaines blasted Kocab as an “entitled cheat” for this eighth championship title.
Liz Kocab (male) wins his 8th Fencing World Championship title…in the women’s category
Winning a title as a male in the women’s category doesn’t make you a champion. It makes you an entitled cheat. pic.twitter.com/9dRNRydtUE
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 16, 2023
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