Mick Hartley

Canada's transgender footballer – a gushing BBC piece that was originally published in September 2020, but has been updated now the Canadian women's team has made it to the football final in the Olympics.

Quinn doesn't like living in the spotlight. Yet as a professional athlete, it often comes with the territory.

But little provides a greater platform than sport, and despite being a self-proclaimed introvert, Quinn recognised the power of using that platform and of "being visible".

And so, in September 2020, Quinn, a defender for Canada's women's football team, publicly came out as transgender.

"It's really difficult when you don't see people like yourself in the media or even around you or in your profession,"

Quinn told BBC Sport. "I was operating in the space of being a professional footballer and I wasn't seeing people like me".

Quinn, who has played 63 times for Canada, won Olympic bronze at Rio 2016, and will take home at least silver from Tokyo 2020, with Canada facing Sweden in the final on Friday.

The 25-year-old remains eligible to compete in women's sport despite identifying as transgender because gender identity differs from a person's sex – their physical biology.

Most people, unless they're non-binary, have a gender identity of male or female.

Quinn was assigned female at birth but after many years of questioning themselves, realised their own gender identity did not match their sex.

Why is the BBC telling us this absolute nonsense about gender identity and sex "assigned at birth"? Oh yes, they're Stonewall Diversity Champions. I imagine there's a room somewhere in Broadcasting House where every item is checked to make sure it's in line with Stonewall's gender philosophy. 

Of course there's a point here which is never made explicit. They say that this Quinn remains eligible to compete in women's sport despite identifying as transgender because gender identity differs from a person's sex – their physical biology. But the real reason that Quinn (birth name Rebecca Catherine Quinn) is eligible to play for the woman's team is that she's a woman. All this trans gender stuff is irrelevant. As a trans man, of course, she's never going to play in the men's game: she'd be completely out of her depth. Rather than featuring in an Olympic final, she'd be lucky to get a game in her local park.

Funny how Laurel Hubbard and Quinn here are both trans heroes for the BBC, but one – the trans woman – is a man imposing himself on women's sport, where he has an inbuilt advantage, while the other – the trans man – is a woman playing in woman's sport. But they never make that obvious point. In fact you could read the whole Quinn article and still be unclear, if you didn't check her picture, as to whether she's a biological man or a biological woman. Indeed it would make more sense – all that stuff about being allowed to compete in women's sport despite identifying as transgender – if she was a man. But, at least as far as I can tell, it ain't so. Her Wikipedia bio – if you can manage to wade through all the plural pronouns (she's non-binary, you see) – makes it clear enough.

All very strange. I suppose if the point was made explicit – trans woman in women's sport, trans man in women's sport – it'd show how absurd the whole business really is.