Well done to British Orienteering. I’ve orienteered for years, and never noticed any trans women in any of the categories, but it is good to have it clarified that men will not be able to take points, prizes, places and accolades from women.
@FlowersInDenmark I must confess I’ve had to read your posts several times to try and work out what it is you are trying to say. It would seem that you are effectively saying that there is no difference between male and female ability to run at speed, therefore the only reason that women need a separate category in orienteering is because women are worse at reading maps. Now I could write essays on the difference in men and women running over short distances, over long distances and in reading maps. It’s actually a special interest of mine, and I have included articles on women winning ultra events on my endurance/map reading pages.
Some women are capable of equalling and beating men in running events. And it has been shown scientifically that the longer the distance, the more likely women are to be able to run as equals and even superiors. However, there is a huge wall to break through in shorter distances before running and winning in these longer distances begins to take place, and this is why there are so few women competing and winning in these ultra events. It also goes some way to explain why the successful women are so lauded - they have broken through the short distances barriers, usually by sheer bloody mindedness - to become winners. But over shorter distances, due to the general anatomical differences between sexes, men will be faster.
Now, when it comes to map reading, there have been many studies which show there is no sex-based difference in the ability to read and interpret a map, but there are differences in the way women give directions vs men giving directions. This has been interpreted in a number of ways, but the main conclusion drawn is that the differences in map reading and understanding are primarily as a result of nurture, not nature. Ie the way men and boys are encouraged to use maps is different to the way women and girls are encouraged. I can link to these studies if anyone is as map-geeky as I am.
Back to orienteering. I compete in orienteering, and though I am an excellent map reader, I am rubbish at running. So I rarely do well. But put me on a horse, where my ability to move across the ground has now become equal to a man mounted on a similar horse, and I suddenly become far superior. If women are rubbish at maps as a whole, as @FlowersInDenmark asserts, how can this be explained? I am current British champion in mounted orienteering, an equestrian sport in which there are no male/female categories. As in most equestrian disciplines, men and women compete as equals. Admittedly the sport is rather female-heavy in the U.K., but the last two European champions (where there are many more men competing) have also been women.
I read and use maps too in my daily professional life, I have done for nearly 30 years. I have never known another woman in my profession to struggle with this, it is a skill which it is assumed all men and women in the job will be equally capable of.
So to summarise, there is scientific proof that men run faster than women until a very great distance has been reached. Orienteering does not even nearly reach these distances. There is no scientific proof women are worse at reading maps. The sex divisions in orienteering are there because men are faster than women. Even though orienteering is absolutely a navigation sport.