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?

Darts

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-12863115/Deta-Hedman-calls-transgender-darts-players-BANNED-womens-ranked-events-insisting-wrong-day-one.html

So a baby step from Park run it seems.

https://x.com/womensrightsnet/status/1735370525268910107?s=46&t=HTxp6zC_d4GZ2FFv4a-YeQ

NEWS 🏃‍♀️- We welcome the change to @parkrun @parkrunUK gender policy which means men who change their ‘gender’ to female on their parkrun profile can no longer have their historical results changed to the new 'gender' - which would of course completely skew any female record.
BUT. We maintain @parkrunUK should record sex. Not ‘gender’.

Meaning they still allow males to compete in female category. But… they won’t now allow male athletes to rewrite their past results.

Why must it be such a struggle for each organisation to do the right thing?

@Signalbox look at the Irish dancing organisation CLRG.. The boy finished 11th in the boys catagory in April, entered the girls section as a girl & won, yet they claim their is no advantage & a poor girl missed out on a qualifying spot to the World Championships next Easter..

I wish I had an answer that made sense signal. But we both know there is nothing that makes sense about this issue.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/trans-girl-wins-girls-u14-dance-competition-sparking-both-fury-praise-riley-gaines-weighs

Fox News covering the Irish dancing story. Typically biased.

I think parkrun is stymied by being a global organisation. It could have changed its rules in the UK but not for example in Australia, Canada (or Ireland?)

They have made things a little less ludicrous but I will still be annoyed the next time I see a male bodied person getting a female course record! They could have said that they would remove female course records from male bodied people if they are made aware, as well.

Atheletes that bleed?????

https://plus.britishrowing.org/2023/12/11/being-an-athlete-that-bleeds/

you mean women you absolute clowns. I’ve no doubt all athletes male & female bleed but only females will be having periods

fuck right off British rowing

The article is actually pretty good - using the correct language - it's just the dreadful title.

As a Fitbit wearer for several years, I had noticed the regular changes in my resting heart rate throughout my menstrual cycle. I'd googled to see if there was any research on this and pretty much come up empty. Its quite shocking that something so obvious is only now getting researched

Caitlin Jenner knows he isn't a woman

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/12/18/caitlyn-jenner-is-right-transwomen-are-not-women/

He'd better keep out of the lady's loos though.

Yes, slightly off topic but same here. I mentioned it to my son's athletics coach and she was the one who said it was to do with the menstrual cycle, I hadn't made the connection until then.

Such a lack of research on womens' health.

A Paula Radcliffe interview being reported on in the DM

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-12943823/Paula-Radcliffe-slams-viciousness-trans-athlete-debate.html

I'd like to take issue over the assertion that the viciousness is from 'both sides', but I'll let that pass. She might be misinformed, keeping her head down or joining Starmer on his fence. However, this I am curious about, apparently

'The actual answers are far more simple than people realise they are. That has been lost sight of.'

So, Paula, what are the answers? If she said, the DM didn't report it. I'd listen to the original podcast, but I have a feeling I'd be wasting my time.

She was an amazing sportswoman. Her honest take on this would be interesting.

Her honest take on this would be interesting.

Wouldn't it just?
As it goes she's using a lot of words without actually saying anything at all...

'We are all trying to live our lives and there has to be a fair, safe way to do that. But every single person deserves the respect to be whatever they want to be and be whoever they want to be.

At the end of the day, we are all people.

Radcliffe said the 'world has become too complicated', adding: 'The actual answers are far more simple than people realise they are. That has been lost sight of.'

She added: 'I do think it's made it very complicated now and how we strip that back to just making it as simple as we possibly can, certainly feels like it will make it a much easier world for the kids to negotiate their way through.

'Even in an easy world, teenage growing up isn't easy, is it. You are learning lots of things about yourself, you are coming to terms with lots of changes, it is tough.

'So, we're just making it harder.'

@IcakethereforeIam I just came on here to share that article.
Sounds like she thinks women should just be kind and livelaughlove their way into oblivion.

How Valley of the Dolls.

Blah blah, I don’t want to say too much, blah blah. Be kind biatches

I was worried it would be the same old 'beeee kiiiiind' rubbish. I'd like to think better of her. Why...why is it just one side that is expected to be kind!? The side that's always expected to be kind?

Hopefully, she's not saying that. Was it Kelly Holmes who turned and threw women under the bus. Once she was safely retired of course. Apologies if I'm misremembering. Whoever it was, let's hope Paula Radcliffe isn't doing that.

PR on the fence there. If it’s so simple just say it.

She talked a lot and said nothing.

Paula doesn't want to lose her lucrative BBC gig.

I wonder how she would have felt if she'd been beaten to her world record by a male bodied person.

Radcliffe said the 'world has become too complicated', adding: 'The actual answers are far more simple than people realise they are. That has been lost sight of.'

Well, yes Paula, we know! Yet it is Paula who are ‘making it more complicated’ by not coming out to fight for girls and women to have their sports categories back. Because she obviously needs her job, but then shames the women who are doing all the fighting.

Paula’s record was set while being paced by men. Without that difference she wouldn’t have been able to run what she did. She knows. They all know.

Makes you realise what a superstar Mara Yamauchi is.

Mara really is a champion in all ways. And she is clear and consistent.

Yes - I was also going to say that she had two records for a mixed race and a female only race. Kind of says it all, although I don't really understand the mixed race thing - even if you are paced you still have to do the work yourself!

In that paced race, which I watched at the time, the men didn’t just pace, they ran in front of her and it can provide a bit of wind protection, thus reducing effort required. It’s why the two hour marathon wasn’t ratified, it used pacers who sheltered Kipchoge while dropping in and out.

Pacing has always been an effective strategy to obtain records in distance running for consistency, pushing yourself, and protection. But male advantage is why that particular race of Radcliffe’s - which is still a phenomenal achievement - has an asterisk next to it. Thousands of men have run faster marathons than Radcliffe and she knows it.