Mick Hartley

An argument sometimes used by those supporting the participation of trans women in women's sport is that the numbers are tiny, so it's really not a problem worth getting worked up about. It's a bad argument anyway – one is clearly too many – but it's just not true. What started out with the odd isolated case has exploded, especially given that the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) eligibility criteria is now just down to testosterone levels – even though that fails to remove male athletes natural advantages in strength, power, and stamina. So men who were mediocre can "transition", and suddenly  find themselves world-beaters.

Madison Smith:

If the public is unaware of the scale of males’ infiltration of women’s sport, it is because the media only covers individual stories, usually with gushing praise for the male athletes’ stunning bravery in deciding to compete against women. They never give the whole picture: that in a huge swath of sports — from rugby to cricket, cycling to mixed martial arts — males are competing against, dominating, and sometimes injuring their female opponents…..

People like Laurel Hubbard, for example, who failed to qualify for a single international men’s tournament as a professional weightlifter between 1998 and 2012. Hubbard transitioned in 2013, aged 35, and has since qualified for 11 international women’s tournaments, including this year’s Olympics.

Hubbard will not be the only male athlete competing against women at this year’s Olympics. Stephanie Barrett took up archery in 2018 and within a year won gold at the Canadian Championships, and this year equalled the Canadian women’s archery record score and qualified for Tokyo. The media failed to report Barrett’s biological sex; it only came to light a search through historic tweets discovered Barrett talking about their sex reassignment surgery in 2012.

Also taking a spot from a woman in Tokyo will be Chelsea Wolfe, who transitioned in 2014 and will compete in BMX Freestyle for Team USA. And perhaps an even more extraordinary case than Laurel Hubbard is Valentina Petrillo, who won 11 Italian men’s Paralympic titles up until 2018. Petrillo then transitioned, aged 44, in 2020.

Petrillo’s motto is “Better a slow, happy woman than a fast unhappy man” — a nice bit of personal motivation that may have contributed to the athlete winning three gold medals at the Women’s Italian Paralympic Athletics Championships in just 24 hours.

Then there’s the record breakers. Mary Gregory transitioned as an adult, took up professional women’s weightlifting and, at Gregory’s first tournament, won all nine events at the 100 per cent Raw Weightlifting Federation competition, breaking four world records in the process. (The records were later rescinded).

Or Tiffany Abreu, a volleyball player in Brazil’s men’s Superliga A & B divisions before transitioning in 2018. Abreu then broke Brazil’s women’s Superliga’s single-game scoring record against a team that contained three Olympic gold medalists.

Terry Miller broke the girls’ state indoor record in the 55 metres dash at the Connecticut Open Indoor Track Championships in 2019, one year after Miller “identified as female”. Second place in the event went to Andraya Yearwood, who is also male. As is JayCee Cooper, who set the women’s bench press record while becoming the USPA Minnesota Women’s State champion in 2019.

Or, Mara Gómez who spent years journeying through the amateur leagues of Argentinian men’s football, but signed a contract with Villa San Carlos in the professionalised women’s Primera División after transitioning.

It is impossible to escape the conclusion that mediocre men thrive in women’s sports. Remember, every male who competes in women’s professional sport is stealing the place — and potentially, victories — from women.

And the list goes on…

There are numerous other examples of males dominating women’s sports, such as Gabrielle Ludwig (who was 6 foot 8 and took up college girls’ basketball), runner Amelia Gapin, footballer and now beach handballer Athena Del Rosario, cyclist Kenzie Statz, dodgeballer Savannah Burton and bodybuilder Chris Bruce. Males are even taking on women in combat sports, such as MMA fighter Fallon Fox, who fractured a woman’s skull, and kickboxer Parinya Charoenphol, who knocked out 18 women.

But male violence isn’t always confined to the ring. Perhaps the most shocking story of all involves Lauren Jeska, who took up fell running after transitioning and won numerous women’s events including the British Fell Running Championships. When an athletics official investigated claims that Jeska was cheating, Jeska stabbed him in the neck and head, along with two other members of UK Athletics staff. Jeska is now in jail for attempted murder.