Women’s sports should be biological females only with an ‘open’ category for trans athletes, a female Olympic athlete has said.

Former MP and Olympian plus President of World Athletics Sebastian Coe has been canvassing for the role of President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with one campaign point being “the protection of the female category”.

In a press conference yesterday, Mr Coe said the “protection of the female category”, for him is “entirely non-negotiable”.

“If you do not protect the female category in sport, then you will lose female sport, women's sport, and that is not something I'm prepared to sit the dance out on,” he said.

On The Hard Shoulder today, former Olympian Sharron Davies said she is “really pleased” to hear Mr Coe’s stance.

“I've been fighting now since 2015 when the IOC changed the rules to say that males were allowed in sport for females,” she said.

“We know that there is a big biological difference, anything between 10% and 30% at Olympic level, and something like boxing, you know, a male of equal height and weight will hit 162% harder, which in a contact sport is extremely dangerous.

“I've just been speaking about it for so long, to say, please, let's just use the peer-reviewed science. Let's use the evidence.

“Let's use what we know has been going on for centuries would result in sport to say that the female category ought to be protected.”

"There must be a place for everybody"

Ms Davies said she thinks “everybody” must “be able to do sport”.

“There must be a place for absolutely everybody - but if you don't want to lose women's sport altogether, you have to protect it,” she said.

“Presently, the rules protect men's sport - men's sports not been affected at all.

“Women's sport now has lost over £1.6-million in prize money [that] has gone to men, and I think something like 3,500 medals have been won by males rather than females.”

Ms Davies said the situation is “putting young girls off sport”.

"Biological females"

She thinks Mr Coe will “clarify” the category if he gets elected as IOC President.

“He will say this category is for biological females, so then there will be no argument,” she said.

“You know, you won't qualify for that category, no matter what you identify as.”

The former Olympian said she would “like to think” they might “create an open category”.

“So we have female and we have open which will be won by a biological male,” Ms Davies said.

“But it does mean that people can go into that category identifying as whatever they would like to identify as, wearing whatever they would like, calling themselves whatever they like, but it's fair competition, and I think that's what we must do.

“We must find ways around this so that everybody can be included - it isn't a third category.

“World Aquatics tried that and not a single transgender athlete turned up to actually compete.

“So, I think we still have to work with the premise that we've got, and what you'll find, ultimately, at the Olympic Games, the best male and the best female will win the medal.”

Big difference

Ms Davies said she doesn’t think people realise the difference in performance between male and female athletes.

“We win medals at the Olympic Games by hundredths of a second,” she said.

“The Paris Olympic Games this summer, which was my 13th consecutive Olympics, Great Britain missed the gold medal in three races by less than [90 milliseconds] combined.

“At this level, we're talking about the length of your fingernails.

“Okay, so in male and female performance, there's a difference between 10/11% and 30% - 30% is things like weight lifting.

“So the more explosive and advanced, the more benefit there is to going through male puberty.

“Something like middle distance running, or, you know, distance swimming, there's about 10% - 10% is half the length of the pool.”

She said in this case, “mediocre male athletes” can become World Champions and Olympic Champions.

“It's discrimination with regards to work as well as just winning a race.”

Listen back here:

The Olympic rings near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, 20-9-17. Image: stephane rouppert / Alamy