Elite sports people speaking up!

[Signalbox]

There seems to be an increasing number of sports people speaking up about the problem of males completing in women's sports which is positive. Thought it might be useful to have a thread of those who are risking sticking their heads above the parapet. Obviously the likes of Sharon Davies, Mara Yamauchi and Martina Navratilova have been bravely doing this for sometime but now we appear to have a few current athletes as well who are prepared to risk the mob to ensure women have fair competition. Is it too much to hope for that there will be a snowball effect?

Nuts isn't it? What about the discrimination against women, being forced to go up against men? Only works one way it seems in this 'brave new world'.

I would not play at this level against a male. It's unsafe and unfair, I don't care how many girls on his team disagree, it's irrelevant, this should be stopped by the sporting body who should always be the adults in the room.

https://twitter.com/skynews/status/1726928540824691057?s=46&t=WEIo18F4LADPprmt4NMSBA
Exciting news from cricket

Brilliant news.

Hopefully football next
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2023/11/20/football-teams-refuse-transgender-player-injury-sheffield/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

The fact that there are leagues for women players in Sheffield, and all over the country, shows how women's sport has boomed in recent years. Seeing the same in both rugby codes too. Which is altogether a Good Thing. I might even meekly suggest, one of the few positives for teenage girls at the moment. All the more reason this positive trend should not be derailed by genderwoo.

Needham should sue the FA because if the FA had stuck to their ‘No mixed teams after age 11 rule’ (that saw me kicked out of the primary school boys team back in 1987!) then none of this would’ve happened.

Instead the FA set Needham up for predictable failure - the knee injury reportedly wasn’t caused by a dirty tackle, Needham simply kicked a ball and the high velocity of that male-strength-kick caused an injury to the female player who blocked the balls onward trajectory - followed by entirely avoidable public and media scrutiny.

The FA could’ve avoided all this simply by declaring the men’s leagues ‘open’ (to males of all gender identities, including ‘none’) and the women’s ‘protected’ (for females of all gender identities, including ‘none’).

Instead they face potential legal action from both directions. The FA have basically gone for the ‘please none of the people, all of the time’ option, because they’ve made female players unsafe physically and men-with-inner-lady-genders unsafe from public rejection and media scrutiny.

I see the new Victorians that run Welsh rowing are too embarrassed to say the word women "Individuals who menstruate" 🙄

https://twitter.com/rowinggeek/status/1726923419071955352

To be fair that does seem to relate to a thing about the menstrual cycle in sport so I can sort of see why they haven't used women in this particular case. I'm still a woman but as I'm post menopause it wouldn't apply to me. In some cases more specific language is appropriate but they should have used women who rather than individuals.

More pressure on the FA to act…

https://archive.ph/w6dEn

Its mind-boggling to think of the comparative strength of kick of a ball that can break a woman's knee. You get hit all the time by hard balls in football - including in the face - but I've never heard of anything like this. Knee breaks are extremely uncommon the women's amateur game.

And, I would imagine, virtually unheard of in the men's game.

Doesn't it make your blood boil that Needham's consequential kick has been described as 'passionate commitment to the game'?

What parallel universe are we living in?

I'm so hopeful though with this ICC ruling, it's all pressure on governing bodies, let's hope football catches up sooner rather than later.

I think this period in time, decisions made, women left high and dry and open to needless career changing injury...I hope it provokes a sea change in how organisations are run.

I wouldn't trust the FA as far as I could throw them.

An update on the Anglers:

https://anglingtrust.net/2023/11/24/team-england-selection-policy-amended/

“As a result of the consultation process, the Angling Trust have amended international selection criteria for England teams meaning that male to female transitioned anglers will no longer be permitted to compete in the ladies’ category. These anglers will continue to be eligible for the existing universal (open) category in both domestic and international events.”

“Angling has a strong heritage of open events and both our National and World Championships are already universal (open) categories allowing the best anglers to compete regardless of gender. The evidence generated through our review process established that strength, stamina and physical attributes have the potential to offer competitors a significant advantage and in doing so impact fairness. In line with Sport England’s review process, we have therefore deemed that angling is a gender impacted sport and have amended our policy accordingly.”

“Growing female participation is a core focus for the organisation and an area in which we have seen great success in recent years. Ensuring the integrity of the female category across all disciplines of angling will remove potential barriers and ensure clear pathways for participation growth to lead to domestic and international success. Having discussed this matter with other sports governing bodies who are building new universal (open) categories we are well advanced in this respect, and we are confident that our revised policy offers opportunities for all to compete fairly and safely in one of England’s largest participation sports.”

“We will continue to work with CIPS and FIPS to support anglers impacted by these changes and to ensure that the international universal category is welcoming and accessible to all.”

”The Angling Trust had previously committed to implement any revised policy from 1st January 2024 in line with the international season, however in light of CIPS’s announcement of an immediate change to its own position we can confirm that this policy will now come into force immediately”

Well done those women!!

There should be penalties, a ban or at least a suspension, if some bloke tries to sneak into the women's category.

YES!!!! What a clear unequivocal, evidenced statement too.

How strange that the MTF person didn't want to follow this: Angling has a strong heritage of open events and both our National and World Championships are already universal (open) categories allowing the best anglers to compete regardless of gender.

So the tide has finally turned on the sea angler 🎣

He can join all the other sea men.

Surely it's that simple, for any sport? We only need two categories; an open category, and a women's category.

"In line with Sport England’s review process, we have therefore deemed that angling is a gender impacted sport and have amended our policy accordingly."

This is literally all any sport needs to do.

Helleofabore · Yesterday 21:51

An update on the Anglers:

Well, that's a turn up. From their statement, they clearly understand the implications of letting men into the women's events and why they shouldn't. Bloody big hand for the principled women and a pat on the back to the organisation, which eventually listened and took action.

I see what you did there.

Oh brilliant thanks for the update.
Going on strike does seem to have quite a significant effect on sporting bodies.
Those women must feel so relieved and proud that this is the result of their action.

I've always been concerned at women being expected to go on strike rather than hand over women's sport to men - they get to lose both ways.
But it seems as if this is working with governing bodies having to face reality - that if they allow men to play and cheat, women will walk away.

The risk is that you need a critical mass for it to work. It's worked brilliantly in some sports, but in others the women step away and things just carry on.