A transgender fencer has come out of nowhere to take second place at the sport’s annual championships this year only six months after taking up the sport, according to reports.
Annika Rose Suchoski, 39, recently soared to second place at the Fortune Fencing Regional Championships in Ontario this month, beating women who have been competing for years, the Daily Mail reported.
In fact, it was Suchoski’s very first tournament since joining the sport as a woman.
Suchoski, who stands taller than all the other female fencers, claims to have “transitioned” to a woman in 2018 and had final surgery in 2022.
The male-born fencer was exuberant over the second-place win, saying of the sport, “I started in February and fell in love with it.”
“It’s really difficult but I have an excellent coach that is a two time world champion and she’s headed to Dubai in a couple months to go for a third title,” Suchoski added. “Through her, I’ve been able to work with Olympians and International and National champions. Tons of amazing experience and teachers.”
Suchoski is not the first man who identifies as a woman to soar to the elite of the fencing game. Just last year, 71-year-old transgender fencer Liz Kocab toppled the sport’s 14-time female fencing champion by winning the 2023 FIE Veteran Fencing World Championships.
Kocab defeated 14-time champion Marja-Liisa Someroja of Finland in the Women’s Epee in Florida on Oct. 15 of last year.
“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.”
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.”
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.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.