Olympic swimming heroine Sharron Davies has blasted London Marathon organisers as ‘anti-women’ for not barring trans females in today’s main race.
Ms Davies, 62, said they should be ‘held to account’ for not protecting biological women and accused them of acting ‘against the law’.
She backed women’s rights campaigners who claim the organisers are advocating ‘two-tier sport’ after excluding trans women from the elite women’s race but not the main event.
Transgender runners, and men who identify as women, can run through London’s streets today as female athletes despite the Supreme Court ruling on April 16 that references to a woman in the Equality Act are defined by biological sex alone.Â
So race times posted by trans women will be recorded and categorised alongside those of biological women.
Yet the ruling by the Supreme Court was backed by Friday night’s additional guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), chaired by Baroness Falkner.Â
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, Ms Davies, who swam at three Olympics and won silver in Moscow in 1980, said the Supreme Court and EHRC had ‘made it very clear’ that organisations did ‘not need to wait for further guidance’.
‘With that in mind,’ she said, ‘I’m very disappointed that yet again, against the law, the London Marathon has prioritised males over females in the women’s category.
Olympic swimming heroine Sharron Davies has blasted London Marathon organisers as ‘anti-women’ for not barring trans females in today’s main race
Ms Davies swam at three Olympics and won silver at the 1980 Olympic Games at the Central Lenin Stadium in Moscow
‘At every ability and level, women and girls deserve fair and safe sport.
‘I hope the London Marathon are held to account for their anti-women stance.’
Last night London Marathon chief executive Hugh Brasher insisted trans women would be allowed to run as females.
He said: ‘The mass participation event at the London Marathon is not a race where participants compete against each other. It is a personal challenge.’
That provoked a furious backlash from women’s rights campaigners who accused marathon chiefs of contempt for women and urged them to ‘weed out’ males who have ‘erroneously’ entered the female category.
Jane Sullivan, sports co-ordinator for the Women’s Rights Network, said: ‘The London Marathon organisers’ attitude is awful.
‘They are ignoring the law by creating a two-tier sport which tells all those thousands of women who enter the marathon that their race is worth less than that of the men. Women entering the main marathon have been training hard and do not want their times to be compared to a male who had entered a female category.’
Mr Brasher responded: ‘We are awaiting clarification on participation, as opposed to competition, to the Supreme Court ruling from the EHRC and Sport England.’
