Online backlash follows transgender fencer’s victory in women’s category.
Transgender Athlete Faces Backlash After Winning World Fencing Title
Liz Kocab, a biological male identifying as a woman, is facing criticism after winning a world fencing title. On Sunday, Mr. Kocab beat 14-time world champion Marja-Liisa Someroja of Finland to win his eighth Vet World women’s championship title at the 2023 FIE Veteran Fencing World Championships in Florida. He won in the 70-plus age category. The win triggered a backlash online.
“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,” Riley Gaines, a former college swimmer and an advocate for women’s sports, said in an Oct. 16 post on X.
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Ms. Gaines tied with a trans-identifying male swimmer, Lia Thomas, for fifth place in a women’s swimming competition last year. Organizers told her that the trophy would be given to the male swimmer, while hers would be mailed at a later time.
Last month, Ms. Gaines took a dig at Mr. Kocab. “Liz Kocab (male) attributes his recent national championship in women’s fencing to consistent training and ‘not taking any short cuts.’ Yeah, like male puberty…deffffinitely NOT a short cut,” she said in a Sept. 13 X post.
In an Oct. 17 post on X, family advocacy organization American Principles called Mr. Kocab’s win “an injustice to women.” This is the second time Mr. Kocab, who is six feet tall, has won in the 70-plus category.
“Liz Kocab is now an eight time world champion! This is her fourth in a row in Vet Women’s Epee! Congrats Liz!” USA Fencing, the national governing body for fencing in the United States, said in an Instagram post.
USA Fencing implemented its transgender and nonbinary athlete policy in November last year. The organization allows athletes to take part in competitions “in a manner consistent with their gender identity/expression, regardless of the gender associated with the sex they were assigned at birth.”
According to the organization’s rules, transgender female athletes—those who transition from male to female—can only compete in women’s events after completing 12 months of testosterone suppression treatment. Such individuals have to provide proof of compliant hormone therapy prior to a competition.
Even with USA Fencing’s 12-month threshold for allowing transgender individuals to take part in female sports, trans people still have a physical advantage over women and thus gain an edge in sports competitions, experts say.
A 2020 British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) report found that despite taking feminizing hormones for 2 years, transgender-identifying biological men were 12 percent faster than their female counterparts.
Trans individuals had a “9 percent faster mean run speed after the 1 year period of testosterone suppression that is recommended by World Athletics for inclusion in women’s events,” according to the report.
‘We Will Destroy Your Sports, Ladies’
In addition to Mr. Kocab, other transgender sports players are raising eyebrows for winning women’s competitions.
On Oct. 7, Tessa Johnson, a man who identifies as a woman, secured gold medals in the Women’s Single Speed and Cat Half categories of the Chicago CycloCross Cup (CCC) race, a cycling competition. Evelyn Williamson, also a male identifying as a female, won silver in Women’s Single Speed and placed fourth in the Cat Half.
In the single-speed race event, only one biological woman was in the top three.
In an Oct. 9 X post, Linda Blade, a former track and field coach, asked the race organizers of USA Cycling to “stop calling these ‘women’s events.’”
“You are fooling nobody. These are ‘beta-male races’ where some women get to be involved. In the process, you are turning your ‘sport’ into a joke.”
Like USA Fencing, other sports organizations, such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC), are including transgender athletes in female sports. “Athletes should be allowed to compete in the category that best aligns with their self-determined gender identity,” the IOC said in December.
The move triggered sharp criticism from Mara Yamauchi, a two-time Olympic marathoner for the UK. “Its total disregard for women and girls made me so angry I was shaking,” she said in an X post.
She expressed outrage at the IOC policy, which “aims to ensure that sports bodies consider the perspectives and lived experiences of those who may be affected by the development and implementation of eligibility criteria.”
She cited an X post in which philosophy of sport researcher Jon Pike said sarcastically, “Can you think who might be directly affected by eligibility criteria for *female* sport? Who might be stakeholders? It’s tricky, and it would be awful to leave out an affected group.”
Ms. Yamauchi interpreted the IOC’s position as saying: “We will destroy your sports, Ladies, but you are so totally worthless we won’t bother asking your views.”
Some sports organizations are taking steps to prevent transgender inclusion in female sports. In July, the International Cycling Union announced that female transgenders who transitioned after male puberty will be banned from taking part in “all categories” of women’s events.
The ban is necessary to ensure “equal opportunities” are preserved, the association said in its statement.
Earlier in March, the World Athletic Council said in a statement that it would exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have passed through male puberty from taking part in female World Rankings competitions.
“We continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations,” the organization’s president said in a statement.
In April, House Republicans passed federal legislation, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, banning transgender athletes from competing in female school sports.
Co-ed competitions.
Ransphobic to say that transgender women are not real women,” she said in an interview with The Epoch Times. “They have the right to compete in sports just like any other woman. We should be celebrating their achievements, not tearing them down.”
However, critics argue that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports poses unfair disadvantages for cisgender women. They argue that biological males, even after hormonal therapy, still maintain certain physical advantages over women that could give them an edge in athletic competitions.
A 2020 report published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine supports this claim. The study found that transgender women who had been taking feminizing hormones for 2 years were 12 percent faster than their cisgender female counterparts. Similarly, these individuals had a 9 percent faster mean run speed after 1 year of testosterone suppression.
The controversy surrounding Liz Kocab’s victory in the women’s fencing category is not an isolated incident. In other sports, such as cycling, transgender athletes have also dominated women’s competitions. Tessa Johnson and Evelyn Williamson, both biological males identifying as females, secured top spots in the Women’s Single Speed and Cat Half categories of the Chicago CycloCross Cup race.
Critics argue that these victories undermine the integrity and fairness of women’s sports. Linda Blade, a former track and field coach, called on USA Cycling to stop labeling these events as “women’s events” and pointed out that they have essentially become
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