No Men in Women’s Sports
Yesterday, 23rd March 2023, was a momentous day.
In an unexpected turn of events, World Athletics took the decision to ban men from women’s competition, no matter how they identify and regardless of their testosterone levels.
Wow! What great news! Where swimming and rugby have already gone, athletics has now followed. And the papers have an important story about women’s sports to report.
I checked The Times fully expecting to see a write up in the “News” section, but no. The sports story that made the News headlines was Harry Kane breaking Wayne Rooney’s record of goals scored for England.
Undeterred, I checked the Sports section. But World Athletics decision isn’t even one of the lead Sport stories. Nope – it follows eight stories about men’s football including three stories about Harry Kane’s goal scoring prowess.
There it is, tucked in between a story about an injured Manchester City player and a Rugby player who might start playing in France. Both men, obviously.
It’s not the best write up, either. The headline is wrong for starters. World Athletics has most definitely NOT banned transgender athletes from female events, it has banned men who claim to be women from female events. Women who claim to be men can still compete in female events (subject to doping restrictions).
Sebastian Coe has clearly seen the light – hallelujah! But always the caveats:
“As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount.”
Does anyone at all believe that we are on the brink of discovering that women really are just men with low testosterone and a missing penis?
And other main stream media?
Obviously I didn’t expect much from the BBC, but they failed to clear a very low bar when they initially reported that:
For heaven’s sake, it’s MEN who are to be excluded. MALES. Was it a mistake? Or was it one last throw of the dice? I suspect the barrage of complaints was the only reason they amended their headline.
More caveats:
A working group will be set up to conduct further research into the transgender eligibility guidelines.
"We're not saying no forever," he said.
There will never be enough evidence that men cannot become women, it seems. But for now Lord Coe is of the opinion that “we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations".
The Independent uses clearer language, which is welcome:
The governing body has opted to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes and those with differences in sex development (DSD) from female competition if they have gone through male puberty.
But it’s not accurate. Athletes with DSDs who have been through male puberty are not excluded as the article goes on to clarify:
For DSD athletes under the new regulations, those relevant athletes must reduce their testosterone levels below a limit of 2.5 nmol/L for a minimum of 24 months to compete internationally in the female category in any event.
It’s nice to see the views of Eilish McColgan being quoted, though. After all, this is about women’s sports.
a one per cent advantage for trans women athletes over female competitors would be “too much”
She’s absolutely right, of course.
The Express reported with astonishing brevity but did notice that Lord Coe
added that a working group will “consult specifically with transgender athletes to seek views on competing in athletics”.
So the activists clearly still have a foot in the door, and women’s athletics is not safe yet.
The Daily Mail – which has been very good on women’s rights over the past couple of years – made space for Sharron Davies’ reaction:
'Thank you Seb Coe and World Athletics for standing up for female athletes across the world who are worthy of fair sport.'
The Mail also acknowledged that female athletes and women’s rights campaigners are the people demanding this change. Because it’s women’s sports that are being corrupted by the presence of men.
For the Mirror, men’s football is the only sport.
We still have a mountain to climb, but little by little, we’re winning.