The United Kingdom’s Sports Councils Equality Group has issued a report concluding that biological men who “identify” as women have an athletic advantage over biological females even with hormone treatment.
Moreover, the report concludes that it is “impossible to guarantee both safety and fairness if male-to-female transgender athletes are allowed to compete in women’s events.”
The much-anticipated “comprehensive” report, compiled by the sports group that includes representatives from sporting organizations across the U.K., took 18 months to complete.
(Instagram/Combate Global)
“Transgender athletes have an unfair advantage in female sports,” and that that advantage remains even when “testosterone levels have been reduced,” according to the Daily Mail.
The Guardian reported on the analysis:
The landmark report is highly significant because it comes from UK Sport, Sport England, Sport Wales, SportScotland and Sport Northern Ireland, who between them invest hundreds of millions of pounds in sport each year. It also marks a notable change of emphasis, with sports being told they can no longer fudge the complex and nuanced issue of balancing transgender participation with fairness.
While the five councils cannot enforce the guidelines, their words carry significant weight and they are likely to be welcomed and implemented by many sports bodies, who have felt in limbo while disputes over how trans athletes participate in sport have raged around them. However, they may face criticism from some women’s advocacy groups, who are likely to argue the guidelines do not go far enough. Conversely, some trans rights groups are likely to voice concerns that the guidelines will lead to trans women being excluded from some sports.
The guidelines state that because males and females do not often play competitive sports against each other, many people do not appreciate the differences, particularly in team sports.
“However, an understanding of the gap between the two sexes can be recognised by results of practice matches between national senior women’s football teams against underage boys’ teams in recent years,” the report said. “The national teams from Australia, USA and Brazil were beaten comprehensively (7-0, 5-2, 6-0 respectively) by club teams of 14- and 15-year-old boys.”
The guidelines said adult male athletes have a 10-12 percent performance advantage over female competitors in swimming and running events on average. That increases to a 20 percent advantage in jumping events and 35 percent better performance in strength-based sports such as weightlifting.
Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard. (Scott Barbour/Getty Images)
“The difference in performance, even at the lower range of 10-12%, is not small in terms of competitive outcomes,” the report said. “It would result in Adam Peaty being beaten by half the pool length in a short-course 100m breaststroke competition, Dina Asher-Smith by more than 20m in the 200m track sprint, and Sir Mo Farah being lapped twice in the 10,000m track race.
“As a result of what the review found, the guidance concludes that the inclusion of transgender people into female sport cannot be balanced regarding transgender inclusion, fairness, and safety in gender-affected sport where there is meaningful competition.”
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com.
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