Ace Sonia backs trans ban in women’s sports
Olympian says it unfair advantage
EXCLUDING male-to-female transgender athletes has been described as “a good call” by Olympic silver medallist Sonia O’sullivan.
The Cork runner said she approved of the decision taken by the World Athletics Council earlier this week.
The council agreed to exclude transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition from this Friday. Speaking on Newstalk radio Sonia said: “Ultimately it’s a good call. “They’re kind of working ahead of themselves this time around. “The bottom line really is to protect the female category of the sport at world athletics.
“It’s all about the physical differences between females and transgender male-to-female people.
“It’s not a fair competition if you have those people competing against each other.”
DSD refers to female athletes who naturally produce more testosterone in their bodies than other women.
The new regulations will require those athletes to reduce testosterone levels below a limit of 2.5 nmol/l, for a minimum of 24 months, in order to compete in the female category.
Sonia added: “It’s a totally different situation: transgender athletes to DSD athletes.
“They’re not really comparable, but
I suppose the way the situations were dealt with wasn’t dealt with very well for the SDS athletes.
“That’s how they were born, they were naturally like that.
“For transgender athletes then, they made the decision to be who they want to identify as.
“Coming with the attributes and the physicalities of a male athlete, then that’s a huge disadvantage for female-born athletes.”