Trans athletes put Parkrun funding at risk

Female records at several venues held by biological men as leading figures air fears for women’s sports

‘We risk alienating a generation of young female athletes if we can’t promise fair and safe play’

PARKRUN must protect women runners from transgender rivals or risk losing its funding, says a report backed by Olympians.

The research paper by Policy Exchange, a think tank, found that at least three Parkrun female records were held by biological men as a result of its policy of allowing entrants to self-identify their gender.

The report – backed by Olympic medallists Sharron Davies and Daley Thompson, and tennis player Martina Navratilova – warned that female athletes risk being alienated unless grassroots sports from cricket and rowing to football and tennis could provide fair and safe play.

It recommended Sports England should require Parkrun to collect participants’ data based on biological sex, rather than their gender identity, and should update all course records to reflect the change.

“If this does not happen within 12 months, taxpayers’ funding should be withdrawn,” said the report. It also proposed that women and girls should have a protected single-sex category restricted to biological females at every level of the sport, from amateur to elite.

Parkrun is among sports highlighted by Policy Exchange where grassroots policies allow for participants to self-identify their gender.

Analysis suggested it placed women at a competitive disadvantage, citing how the winning woman from the London Marathon in 2023 would be beaten by the 231st ranking male, or that every British long-course swimming record set by an elite female swimmer has been beaten by a teenage boy.

The report highlighted Porthcawl’s Parkrun record time of 18 minutes 53 seconds in the female 45-49 category which was set by transgender runner Siân Longthorpe. It beat the previous record by one minute 13 seconds, prompting an Olympic long distance runner to say the record was “probably now out of female hands forever”.

Ms Longthorpe also holds the age 40-44 female record, as well as the outright female record in Parke, Devon, and the female 40-44 record in Torbay Velopark.

Challenged over the self-id policy last summer, Russ Jefferys, Parkrun’s chief executive, said he was “totally comfortable” and had “absolute confidence” in its current position.

However, Maria Waite, a Parkrun director, said she was disappointed at the unfairness of the policy. “They accept funding from Sport England, Parkrun results are published every week on the Power of 10 website and yet when challenged the response is that Parkrun is not a sporting event,” she said. “They can’t have it both ways and are alienating women. I am aware that there have been discussions over stopping publishing weekly results and statistics as a way of avoiding addressing the problem, but this again will disadvantage women.”

Thompson, a champion Olympic decathlete, said: “We risk alienating a generation of young female athletes if we can’t promise them fair and safe play from the grassroots level to the top. Categories exist to allow everyone the chance to participate and the willingness to compromise this by policymakers within sport is a scandal.”

Davies, an Olympic swimming silver medallist, said: “Every sport, at every level, from grassroots to elite, must ensure that the female category is ringfenced for biological females.”