Mick Hartley

Janice Turner in the Times – Women will never accept sports being rigged:

Women are not just hobbled men, smaller men, lesser men, men who have popped pills. We are not helpmeets for men, created from Adam’s rib. Women are our own selves. Our bodies are extraordinary: with their monthly cycles, pelvises tilted to bear children, lactating breasts. I once interviewed Paula Radcliffe and, chatting to her husband/coach beforehand, asked how her last race went: “Not bad, given it was her period,” he said frankly. (No male can “identity” into that.)

It is a joy to watch Serena or Laura or Paula prove what the female body, pushed to its limits, can do. How can these bodies be expected to compete fairly against those designed by nature to hunt or fight?

Women’s sports are hard-won and, as Seb Coe observed, very fragile. The FA banned women’s football from its grounds from 1921 until 1971. Men’s cycling began with the modern Olympiad in 1896: women’s cycling was added in 1984. Now, after only 38 years, we must move aside, surrender our places, medals, records and glory to mediocre males or those like 44-year-old weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who fancied a retirement plan. We must allow our races to be cherry-picked by those like Thomas who coaches say threw her second two events to dampen outcry about initial victory.

Brilliant girls rising at 5am to train must accept that a male in their cohort may steal the integrity of their sport for a generation. While science is traduced, the evidence before our eyes disbelieved, rules drafted by institutions captured by male interests, and misogynists chortle at our dismay, we must take it quietly, like good girls.

Not any more. Both the UCI and FINA, the international water sports body, hear the rumble of female rage and are now suggesting that maybe a woman is not just a chemically impaired male. Elite sportswomen are starting to speak up: the threatened cycling boycott will echo across the world.

No one wants to exclude trans people from the joy of sport, only males from women’s contests. A trans man, Iszac Henig, competed in the women’s NCAAs without controversy. Emily Bridges was embraced by her male teammates in a recent men’s race. Protect the female category, then allow everyone else — men, trans women, trans men on testosterone — into an “open” event. No one is insulted or misgendered, no one has an unfair advantage. It’s the perfect outcome: everyone can play.

Ah yes, but the joy of sport, for trans women like Lia Thomas, lies in winning. They want to be up their on the podium, clutching their gold medal – and it's a hell of a lot easier when you're competing against women, and so have a built-in biological advantage.