After World Athletics appear to be preparing for another pathetic compromise on allowing trans women to compete in women's athletic events, Tina Daniels, a former British men’s record holder prior to gender reassignment, speaks out:
I am tetraplegic and paralysed from the chest down following a road traffic accident 20 years ago in which I broke my neck in two places, destroyed my spinal cord, and was left with limited use of my hands and arms.
I went from playing football and rugby to taking up wheelchair sport, namely javelin, discus and shot put, working my way up to become the best in the country in my disability category. I loved competing and, after my reassignment surgery, I resumed training and found I had retained nearly all the upper-body strength I gained during more than 30 years of life as a male.
I considered entering events under my new legal gender, something that would likely have seen me break women’s world records in my category, qualify for the Paralympics, and potentially come away with gold.
That is something I just could not bring myself to do.
While others had worked tirelessly for the chance to realise that same dream, because of my unfair advantage, I would just be taking a deserved spot away.
I am in my 40s now and still train studiously and regularly. I would be very competitive in female sports, even at my age, and Paralympic podiums would not be beyond me.
I find it incredulous [incredible, surely - MH] that trans women like myself are being shoehorned into female sports even when we retain advantages years after transitioning. The evidence is there proving those advantages are insurmountable.
World Athletics’ “preferred option” for new transgender rules – halving the amount of testosterone I would be permitted to 2.5 nanomoles per litre – is yet another policy fudge based on pseudoscience and the antithesis of peer-reviewed studies.
What defines a woman is not her hormone level.
I do not produce any testosterone now but have crucially undergone male puberty, giving me an overwhelming edge versus those born female when it comes to the likes of lung capacity, strength and muscle fibre.
The fairest and most inclusive policy would be one that ensures a men’s category is open to all, including people like me, even if that means renaming it to reflect that. The women’s category could then be reserved for those born female.
Most trans women athletes do not accept this. They want the validation of being able to get into the female sports arena, even if it means displacing the rights of millions of others to a sex-based system.
Failing to prevent that would lead to it happening on a much grander scale than we can imagine. It may not have done yet in elite track and field but that does not mean there are not people ready and willing to exploit the opportunity. And they will. In four-to-five years’ time, you are going to see a world of change.
Whether trans women start winning at the likes of the Olympics or Paralympics is irrelevant. Their mere presence at any level of competition will inevitably be at someone else’s expense.
Women have been told to accept without question that trans women are women. Opposing that would lead to them losing funding and their livelihood. Women have been silenced. They are too afraid to speak up. When we get to a situation where the athletes feel able to make statements then this could enable a change of tack.
British shot-put champion Amelia Strickler spoke out against World Athletics’ “preferred option” and she is absolutely right. It would just allow mediocre males to come straight into her discipline and start throwing metres further than she can. It is unfair and unethical.
Well said.
Of all the absurdities of the trans debate, this is surely the most clear-cut. Quite obviously it's unfair for men who've been through male puberty to compete against women. Why are sporting bodies so pathetic, so pusillanimous about this? Why the compelling need to appease the trans lobby and allow trans women to compete when it means throwing women under the bus? Just because they're men, and they matter more than women?
Comments