By Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw
A Report from the British Conservative and influential think tank ‘Policy Exchange’ claims that the fairness and safety of grassroots sport is being compromised by allowing transgender people to compete in their preferred category.
The Report claims that, if men and women were allowed to compete in the same category across many sports, the top woman would be beaten by a man who would be far down the league table in his own sport. For example, the female winner of the London Marathon would be beaten by the 231st male!
The Report, therefore, concludes that female categories in sport need to be ring-fenced for biological females.
The Report has been supported by the former Olympic swimmer, Sharron Davies, and the former world number one tennis player, Martina Navratilova.
Davies stated that “mediocre male athletes are stealing medals from women and girls by self-identifying as the opposite gender.” And added that “professional sport’s governing bodies were beginning to wake up to the importance of maintaining single-sex categories.”
Navratilova called on sport’s governing bodies to “protect women’s sport from grassroots upwards” and commented that the research “demonstrates the scale of male advantage in sport.”
Transgender sport, at all levels, is likely to continue to be one of the major sporting issues making the headlines in the New Year, especially in the run up to the Paris Olympics!
Prof Dr Ian Blackshaw may be contacted by e-mail at ‘