Yesterday, for the first time in 8 years, the women's cross-country race was women only

[Clymene]

Just saw this on Twitter:

The start of the 2023 XC season today and thanks to new rules from @BritAthletics and @EnglandAthletic for the first time in 8 years, there were only females running in the women’s races. At last, fairness for females in licensed races entered after Mar 31st

Finally! What an amazing achievement for all the women and men who have worked so tirelessly to bring fairness back to women's sport.

Screenshot here

Especially as those records may not, in many instances, ever be able to be overcome - due to the fundamental biological advantage of male bodies.

I genuinely think those records should be expunged - group them separately as ‘TW results’, and allow the actual female achievements be celebrated and remembered.

About bloody time is all I can say!

Fantastic news, about frigging time, gives me hope for the future!

At last. They must get a female winner then.

out of curiosity: how many transgender women athletes are there in the UK? (That are a member of Britathletics or England Athletics). I can't think of one.

No idea how you find out which men have membership as women.

Sian Longthorpe has recently smashed a long held women's park run record though and Lauren Jeska held a lot of women's records until he tried to kill Ralph Knibbs

2014 was when the main (formerly) gay rights organisations really started to push the self ID agenda very aggressively and openly. You can see a marked change in their annual reports between around 2012 to 2018 (the word lesbian all but disappears)

Having read stuff by the key players it seems like the lobbying and preparation had been going on for well over a decade before.

Do we know whether the last 8 years have been mixed due to one stubborn person, or a series? Just out of nosiness.

There aren’t any British records held by transwomen. You can check the list yourself here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_records_in_athletics

All household names (if you follow athletics) all definitely women.

But how many race titles were denied women because of male competitors? Lauren Jeska won quite a few.

During Easter of 1998 Jeska came out to her parents as a trans woman, and had a orchiectomy in 2000. While at Leeds, she took up fell-running, finding immediate success, winning the Blackshaw Head fell race in 2008.[6] She later joined Todmorden Harriers athletics club, and went on to win the 2010 Three Shires Fell Race, the 2011 Liverpool Half Marathon, the 2010, 2011, and 2012 English, and 2012 British Fell Running Championships.[2] After moving to Wales she joined Aberystwyth Athletics Club. Wikipedia

I totally agree with expunging them, but I see no need to group them separately, that would be like grouping drug doping athletes separately rather than banning and removing awards / medals.

Congratulations to all the women taking part in the event, it must be a great feeling to know that however you were placed that that was a fair result based on your ability, not on the Y chromosomes of another runner.

@334bu yep, there are certainly results including wins held by transwomen, but no records as far as I know. I think stripping athletes of titles that were won under the rules that were in place at the time would be simply unlawful and I can't imagine EA has any desire to be dragged through the CAS.

Its great that women get to have fairness in their choosen sport.

Perhaps an asterisk denoting that these athletes would no longer be considered eligible in the female category? Doesn't right original wrong but at least acknowledges it.

Very well done to the women who worked for this

It would be my absolute preference to simply dispatch of TW from the records entirely, as I believe they should have never been permitted to compete against biological females.

However, given the fact that the sporting governing bodies made rules under which these TW competed, simply erasing them (although absolutely preferable) would not work. Keeping their data separated as a reminder of the idiocy of the times and the injustices permitted might just make future generations of women alert to the unbelievable shit that went down by males in women’s sport.

@334bu where do you draw the line though? Should all athletes that competed before PEDs became illegal also get an asterisk? That would basically be every single endurance sport record before 1965. How about all the gymnasts that got olympic medals before the age restrictions came in and who would be ineligible to compete now? Having 12 year olds compete against adult women was absolutely unfair.

And at the county level (there haven't been any trans athletes at national level) where would these asterisks go anyway? Yes, you could get Pete who was Notts county association secretary in 1997 to dig out his old notebooks and put an asterisk against a name - but what purpose would this serve?

I agree with asterisking. It's not that much effort to note that up to year x, PEDs could have influenced results. We already note things like records being set over distances measured in yards rather than metres. Or wind-assisted records, whether the race was at sea level or at altitude, etc, etc.
Is it that much effort to make a note that a male athlete set such and such a time? I do think it's worth it for women because the difference in athletic performance between men and women is much greater than the difference between PED-taking and clean athletes. So leaving male records/results unannotated is even more misleading about the progress of the sport, or how to benchmark the achievements of women and girl athletes.

An asterisk or some other sort of black mark.

Incidentally, I always have to quickly think, "Is it asterisk or asterix?"

A little Asterix would be adorable. But perhaps more appropriate for doping.

Brilliant news

Keep going

Thanks for the little giggle, IcakethereforeIam!
I see what you did there...

Such good news.