A special edition exploring the issues surrounding transgender women in women’s sport.
In a special, extended edition of The Sports Desk, Sarah Mulkerrins, Dan Roan and Jane Dougall explore and explain the issues surrounding transgender women competing in women’s sport.
With the governing bodies of cycling and swimming reviewing their transgender policies and widespread calls for more leadership from the International Olympic Committee, what happens next as sport wrestles with a complex balance of inclusion, sporting fairness and safety?
We’ll hear from two elite GB runners, who want clear regulations to protect women’s sport and a separate “open category” to include men and trans athletes.
Transgender racing driver Charlie Martin tells the story of her transition and calls the exclusion of trans women in sport “inhuman” and “criminal”.
Sports scientist Ross Tucker says the International Olympic Committee have prioritised inclusion “at the expense of the integrity of women’s sport”, while Loughborough University sports scientist Joanna Harper says “definitive answers” on any athletic advantages for trans women are 20 years away.
Lastly, Magali Martowicz, Head of Human Rights at the IOC, defends their guidance that there should be “no assumption” that trans women have an advantage and that sports bodies should decide their own policies on a “case by case” basis.
: Sarah Mulkerrins, Dan Roan, Jane Dougall
Producer: Sam Sheringham
