Riley Gaines calls 71-year-old trans fencing champion an “entitled cheat”

Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines took a swipe at a 71-year-old trans athlete who just became an eight-time world fencing champion.

Liz Kocab recently won the women’s 70+ division in the Veteran Fencing World Championships and now claims victories in the 50s, 60s, and 70+ age categories. In a post-victory interview with USA Fencing, Kocab said her continued participation in competitions is her “way of saying thanks to USA Fencing.” With tears in her eyes, she said winning “never gets old” and is “always special.”

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She is trying to make October 10 “Real Women’s Day” because transphobia is her whole personality now.

But Gaines decided to rain on the parade by insulting and misgendering Kocab on X, writing that “winning a title as a male in the women’s category doesn’t make you a champion. It makes you an entitled cheat.”

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Gaines’s followers joined in the heckling in the responses, calling Gaines a hero and referring to Kocab as an “old conman,” a “weirdo cheat,” and a “coward,” among other insults.

USA Fencing adopted a trans-inclusive policy in 2022, allowing athletes to compete as their gender, with varied participation requirements depending on the age level.

At the time, USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews declared unwavering support for trans fencers: “It is critical that we protect the rights of nonbinary and transgender athletes in fencing. Even as we plan to conduct more scientific research into the physiological effects of gender transition as they pertain specifically to the sport of fencing, we remain unanimously and steadfastly supportive of transgender athletes having their place in fencing. To be clear, even as this issue evolves, our support of transgender athletes will not waver.”

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Gaines, on the other hand, has been crusading against the rights of trans athletes since she tied for fifth place with trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas in the women’s 200m freestyle final at the National Collegiate Athletics Association swimming and diving championships. She has claimed she was robbed of some sort of victory by having to share fifth place with a trans woman.

Most recently, Gaines celebrated her own created holiday, “Real Women’s Day,” which she established on October 10th since the Roman numerals for 10/10 are XX, symbolizing for Gaines that “real” women have XX chromosomes.

Speaking at Penn State that day, Gaines yelled to trans rights protestors: “What are you so scared of? The truth? Science? Common sense? Logic? Reasoning? I’d love to hear your argument here because what I’m here to talk about is men are men, women are women, and you cannot change your sex. It’s that simple.”