Excellent podcast on the process for developing World Rugby’s transgender policy

[DancelikeEmmaGoldman]

If you’re interested in women’s sport, I strongly suggest you listen to this. The process, the reasoning and the research are very clearly laid out. It was a thorough and methodical investigation and the outcomes are relevant for most sports.

There are some telling comments, which you’ll pick up as you listen.

Listen to Why Rugby's Controversial New Transgender Guidelines Make Sense For All Sporting Codes from The Real Science of Sport Podcast on Apple Podcasts. podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-real-science-of-sport-podcast/id1461719225?i=1000497073938

Have downloaded to listen later, thanks

I was a bit put off at first as I saw the podcast was over an hour so I listen in two chunks. Ross Tucker is a really engaging speaker who know this subject now inside out. It’s an excellent listen, I highly recommend it.
I’ve also listened to his two podcasts on Caster Semenya. They are equally interesting. The first he did at the start of the year. He was involved in the legal team for her case. The second one is from September when CAS upheld the decision. What’s incredibly interesting is in the meantime he’s been privy to the science from the transgender workshop and whilst these are two separate issues for sport there is an obvious over lap.

He’s been on quite a scientific journey this year and what’s heartening is he’s come out fighting for (biological) women’s sport.

Placemarking to listen later, thanks OP

I was a bit put off at first as I saw the podcast was over an hour

Anyone else in this boat can have the "executive summary" in 25 minutes, in the form of a presentation he gave to World Rugby's medical conference.

It's a bit more professional and to-the-point, but he couldn't stop himself having a few asides about how incredibly bad one's side's presentations were compared to the others.

vimeo.com/475933330

Listened to this last night while I was cooking and baking, and it is fantastic. Ross is so thorough, so balanced, so completely focused on the science, that even though it’s quite long, it’s absorbing throughout. He makes it very clear what he thought of the evidence being brought, and while he was very fair, you can be in no doubt about his conclusions

I also love Ross and Mikes accents

I've finally met a nice South African.

Haha, showing your age there necessary? 😂

Now I’ve got that stuck in my head.

Ross is great isn't he? I don't think he starts from an ideological position at all, for either side. He has got himself here from the evidence.

I think part of the problem when all these sporting bodies made the decision to let trans ppl self-identify into the category they wanted is that everyone thought there would only be a few. Aside from the fact that was dismissive of the equal or greater number of females affected by those few, I think we know now they were wrong. But it's still hard to track the real numbers. I heard about a 15 year old footballer playing for Celtic FC girls who was born a boy. But it's all under the radar. I just wish we could collate the real numbers and also enable females to say honestly what the effect on them is.

Of course if these sport organisation affect self-id across the board, there’s no way of knowing the full picture. We’ve no way of knowing how many biological males are playing in girls football for example.