Men don’t belong in women’s sport

Olympic leaders say there’s no such thing as male advantage in sport. Here’s a simple question for them: if that were true, why not just scrap sex-based categories of men and women altogether?

We all know why. Men run faster, jump higher and are stronger than women. In my sport of swimming, men are on average 11 per cent quicker than women. In boxing, their punches are 160 per cent more powerful. Such advantages mean that, on gender transition, mediocre male athletes are rocketing up the rankings, winning prizes and taking women’s places for one simple reason: whatever their feelings and life choices, they are biologically male.

So, faster, higher, stronger – but not better. Different. Human biology dictates it. In sport, sex matters. It’s binary and it governs safety and fair play. Inclusion makes a mockery of sport but it harms just one group: female athletes.

At the heart of a furious debate in which female rights, science and the nature of sport have been shoved aside, trans activists have had the ear of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose members insist that there is no evidence to suggest males identifying as trans women have an unfair advantage.