‘We can’t let another generation lose out’ – Olympian Sharron
OLYMPIAN Sharron Davies says she felt compelled to speak out in the trans sporting debate after witnessing her generation of female swimmers cheated by the East German doping scandal.
The swimming star welcomed Boris Johnson’s intervention on the issue, and said: “We cannot pretend biology does not exist – female athletes deserve fairness.”
She said the German Democratic Republic doping scandal had highlighted how big a part biological advantages could play. By the 1970s, East Germany was systematically doping its athletes, with women given anabolic steroids which in effect androgenised them.
The country overtook the
US to become the strongest female Olympic nation in the pool and dominated women’s sport, cheating legitimate athletes out of medals and livelihoods.
Davies said: “My generation lost out. I had swimming friends who came fourth behind three East Germans and no one knows their names.
“Their whole lives would have been very different if the IOC [International Olympic Committee] had done its job.
“I know first hand how frustrating that feels – to know no matter how good you are, how hard you train...
“You can’t give away a 5-10 per cent advantage when races are won by 100th of a second.
“East Germany won 90 per cent of women’s events and hardly any of the men’s events.
“I am speaking out because I don’t want another generation to lose out.” The issue came to a
head after trans swimmer Lia Thomas won the National College Championships in the US last month.
In the UK, trans cyclist Emily Bridges was excluded from a race by the governing body UCI.
Bridges was part of British Cycling’s under-21 squad as a male rider, but began hormone therapy last year and now wants to compete in women’s events.
On Friday, British Cycling banned transgender riders from competing in national events.
This followed the PM saying last week: “I don’t think biological males should be competing in female sporting events.”
Davies won silver for Britain at the 1980 Moscow Olympics behind East German Petra Schneider who has since admitted doping. She said: “I am not anti-trans. I have friends who are transgender and I know parents whose children are transgender.
Trans men and women should all be able to live in peace and safety as all of us have to.
“However, I am pro-female sports and pro-fairness. Our biological sex will be the same the day we are born till the day we die. Your DNA is in every cell in your body. Bodies do sports, not feelings.”
She continued: “People in sport are afraid to speak out.
“Trans activists try to get them sacked if they do.they ring charities they are affiliated with, they ring their colleges, contact their work places, their sponsors.
“A small minority of activists are not doing any favours for most trans people who just want to get on with their lives.”
However, pro-trans groups have argued there are no advantages for trans athletes – and say results have proved this. Stonewall, Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ rights organisation, has called the row over trans athletes “a manufactured moral panic”.