Female world-class athletes largely view the inclusion of trans-identified males in female sport categories as unfair, particularly in sports that emphasize physical capacity

Among female world-class athletes, 77% opposed the inclusion of trans-identified males in female categories, citing significant fairness concerns. This opposition was especially pronounced in sports relying heavily on physical capacity, such as track and field and weightlifting. Precision sports like archery saw much lower levels of concern, with only 35.7% of athletes viewing the inclusion as unfair

Shaw et. al (2024)¹ surveyed female 175 athletes, stratified into three competitive levels based on proximity to world records and level of competition: 26 world-class (Tier 5) athletes, including Olympic or World Championship finalists or those within 2% of world records; 49 elite (Tier 4) athletes, who have competed internationally or are within 7% of world records; and 100 national level (Tier 3) athletes, who have competed nationally or are within 20% of world records. Overall, 58% of these athletes supported categorizing sports based on biological sex.

1. Shaw, A. L., Williams, A. G., Stebbings, G. K., Chollier, M., Harvey, A., & Heffernan, S. M. (2024). The perspective of current and retired world class, elite and national athletes on the inclusion and eligibility of transgender athletes in elite sport. Journal of Sports Sciences, 42(5), 381-391. [Link] ↩︎