Sharron Davies on Woman's Hour today (Wednesday)

Here is just one of those wrong facts:

In 2022 the Office of National Statistics (ONS) published statistics showing just 0.5% of the population of England and Wales identified as a different gender than their sex assigned at birth. Breaking the stats down further and excluding those who are non-binary, just 48,000 were trans women, and the exact same figure were trans men. In comparison, the ONS report there are 30,420,100 natal females. Simple maths tells us that natal females outnumber trans women by the ratio of six hundred and thirty-three to one.

Basic maths proves trans women will never dominate women’s sports events.

Who knew that the 'winners' in women's sports were actually just picked at random from the whole population?!

On the other hand, those are the arguments constantly being trotted out (like the “trans athletes are being banned” nonsense), so it gives Sharron the opportunity make a clear rebuttal.

Sharron is also on the Brendan O’Neill podcast this week if you want a more focussed and longer discussion. Listened this morning. More time so more points made including how male athletes who speak up do not receive the same abuse as women do.

Sharron Davies is just so clear and knowledgable in the way she talks. I heard her on the podcast How to Be 60 and where she talked about going to meet the East German swimmer Petra Schneider who beat her at the Olympics, and how those women that were doped (they were just as much victims) are now suffering terrible long term effects.

https://translucent.org.uk/sharron-davies-unfair-play-the-battle-for-womens-sport-the-untold-facts/

Apparently we are looking at the wrong facts!

I'm not sure we know of Nuala's personal view on the issue? but her job as a BBC presenter is to present both sides of an argument, or certainly to counter any given narrative.

There's another point she makes in the book - not sure if she made it on the programme:

Transwomen can compete if they reduce their testosterone to certain levels. Even if you accept that those levels remove their natural advantage (it doesn't and they are still way above normal female levels) how do you prove that they are doing it? She mentions in the book how easy it was for doctors in the GDR to game the system by "flushing away" the drugs before drug tests were due. So a transwoman could be under the accepted levels for competition but not the rest of the time, unless they are subject to very regular out of competition testing.

Yet women can be tested for doping at any time.

Unfortunately even if the UCI and USA Cycling were to adopt British Cycling's policy it would not really change anything in US Cycling. The vast majority of races there, including all the gravel race series (which are the biggest thing in US cycling at the moment) are unaffiliated and set their own rules.

Sharron was fantastic. So clear and knows her stuff inside out. Loved it when she challenged the emotive disinformation. I wonder if Nuala might have been feeling a bit conflicted by the end.

I would have liked Sharron to have had the time to talk about the horrific and graphic abuse women get for speaking out on these issues.

The London Marathon comes under the governance of WA, not UKA. Transwomen who have been through male puberty are banned by both bodies from competing in the female category.

The problem is far worse in cycling where national and world governing body policies diverge. So transwomen cannot compete in the female category in the British National Championships, but can compete in the Womens Tour, as while this is run by BC, it is done so effectively under "contract" for the UCI, and follows current UCI rules.

BC has taken a leap here and the other national federations in the 'big' cycling nations (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Spain) don't really have a history of independence - they just go along with what the UCI does. So it basically comes down to a battle in the UCI between BC and USA Cycling (who are completely captured). The UCI will likely follow the lead of BC (and other sports), and the other federations will all change their rules for domestic competition to follow the UCI (except for USA).

I think the emotional-blackmail angle ('excluding people who are already marginalised', genocide etc) just looks a bit pathetic in the face of Sharron's wall of evidence, stats, and science. Like switching the light on to show a scared kid that the shadow on the wall is a dressing gown, not a monster hiding behind the door.

I happened to have R4 on, so listened to WH for the first time in nearly a year. Sharron was absolutely excellent. Nuala kept bringing the discussion back to Sharron's own experiences and Sharron used this to make very pertinent parallels with the terrible effects of testosterone on the bodies of female East German athletes and the benefits that testosterone gives in sport. Towards the end Nuala seemed almost to be apologising for allowing Sharron to speak (which to be fair she did). I'm not sure her quoting Emily Bridges' genocide comparison did the other side of the argument any favours; whilst Sharron was robustly on the side of women and fairness in our sport.

I'm really glad she also got the point in about the horrific after effects for the East German girls.

Sharron was excellent! So articulate and very measured (and yes I noticed the lack of interruption, which is good journal, if nothing else!)

I thought Rosamund Pike was going to come out in support, when she said about the fascinating discussions, but then just referred to the immediately previous speaker re bowel incontinence (who was also fantastic)

❤️ to Sharon Davies for advocating for women.

It's truly shocking what is happening in sport .

Thanks for linking. Very good performance by Sharron Davis - clear, articulate, reasoned, evidenced, and she's clearly up to date with the material. Excellent contrast to some of the ludicrous 'other sidery' being put to her. And she was allowed to talk, which was my worry - I caught a bit of her interview on Good Morning Britain a few days ago and that was just her being shouted over.

Personally I'd have pushed back on Bridges' genocide nonsense, but leaving it hanging was probably the more politic move.

I wonder what pieces will make the cut for Weekend Women's Hour?

American cycling is particularly bad for letting men compete as women. High School athletics, too.

I am eternally grateful to Sharon for her consistent lobbying. From September English swim races have to have an "open" and a "girls" category even for races at grass roots level. None of this "it doesn't matter because they are little" business.

Loved how Sharron's piece on fairness in women's sport was bookended by the latest 'Pestminster' grim incident and post birth anal incontinence
Sex matters.
Proper woman's hour this morning.

Sharron Davis was great on this: clear and fair.

Sharon was wonderful. She got her points across so clearly and was not deflected by Nuala's quotes using terms such as 'exclusion', 'already marginalised' and 'genocide'. Sharon rightly pointed out that women and girls are being excluded from their own sports.

I am just surprised by the 50 transwomen athletes competing as women at top level in Canada/North America. That does not sound like a tiny minority!

And now talking about fecal incontinence after childbirth. I wonder how many transwomen athletes need to worry about that?

Sharron is an exceptionally gifted representative for fairness... she comes across better than anyone, so pleased whenever she s presented she makes our case perfectly.