Oh Fuck Off, Claire Balding

Presumably the interview was only granted on condition that she wasn’t asked to comment on the intrusion of men identifying as women into women’s sports and the aggression shown to sportswomen like Sharron and Martina who challenge it. What a waste of time.
Pleased to see that large majority of Times readers are equally unimpressed.

I'm not sure that she is responding to the problem of men competing in women's events. It seems like she is speaking to some of the other issues that hold back women's sport. Nurturing an expanded number of mixed teams (in sports where this is possible) in addition to single-sex sport could be part of the process by which sportswomen are given fairer access to opportunities, funding, attention.

If you think about the events in which mixed teams are already a feature - eg Wimbledon - they seem to create additional opportunities for women, rather than a leeching away of already-scant opportunities.

She never did strike me as the sharpest tool in the box

Might be okay if it's additive? I don't know, although:

'She notes, though, that more research is still needed on how women’s bodies are different from men’s, citing the ACL [anterior cruciate ligament] injury suffered by Arsenal’s Beth Mead as a result of unsuitable football boots. “Women were using small men’s boots. The impact of the studs not giving, or the boot being stiff, was having a negative effect on joints, ligaments and muscles,” she explains.'

If we are to be concerned about unsuitable football boots, possibly worth also having a think about safety risks in mixed sex contact sport.