Aussie Olympian Emma McKeon has said competing against a transgender athlete, who was biologically born a male, would be a “concern”.
“I mean, I personally wouldn’t want to be racing against someone who is biologically a male, so that’s a concern,” McKeon said at Griffith University’s A Better Future For All seminar.
McKeon added, “I don’t think I’m going to have to race against a trans swimmer, I don’t think it’s going to come to that point.”
“But now that it’s a growing thing, the sport has to think about how to handle it and how to deal with it, because you do want to be inclusive, but you don’t want to have females racing against swimmers who are biologically male because it’s just not fair.”
The statement comes after a comment that Australian professional golfer Mianne Bagger – who is openly transgender – made about having an “advantage” because of his biological gender.
“There is a real impact of transition which does reduce strength and performance, although this does take a reasonable period of time,” the athlete told news.com.au.
Bagger went on to say that she doesn’t necessarily believe that all transgender women should be able to compete in female sport.
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“These days, [the dynamic] has crept into what’s called self ID or self identification: male-bodied people presenting as women, who live as women, with varying degrees of medical intervention and in some degrees, no medical intervention, which is just — it’s crossed the line, in my view, it really has … It’s a slap in the face to women.”
The topic has been hotly debated since Claire Chandler’s introduced a so-called “Save Women’s Sport” bill, which was created to exclude some trans women from competitive sports.
“It’s time to stop the activists abusing the law and threatening sports clubs with legal action if they don’t let biological males compete in women’s sporting events,” part of Chandler’s bill reads.
While the bill has been backed by several Coalition politicians, it’s also been strongly criticised for its discriminatory nature.
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