Transgender man wins women's 100 yd and 400 yd freestyle races.

I've edited my post to be more precise in what regard I specifically meant.

And yet in the 2020 survey on a similar question, the vast majority (think it was around 46%), answered “Don’t know” to the question of whether or not the rules around transgender athletes were fair, with 15% yay, 15% nay and the rest not applicable. The response rate for that survey was higher too.

EDIT: Just to correct myself, had to confirm:

22. Do you feel rules around transgender athletes are fair in your sport?

Yes: 82 (15.3%)

No: 82 (15.3%)

Don't know: 311 (57.9%)

Not applicable: 62 (11.5%)

And the response rate:

The BBC Elite British Sportswomen's Survey was sent to 1,068 women in 39 different sports and received 537 responses.

Broader range of sports, and less no responses:

The electronic survey was sent to representatives of archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, bobsleigh and skeleton, boccia, boxing, canoeing, climbing, cricket, curling, cycling, darts, equestrian, fencing, football, goalball, golf, gymnastics, hockey, horse racing, judo, motorsport, netball, rugby league, rugby union, sailing, shooting, skateboarding, short-track and figure skating, skiing and snowboarding, squash, surfing, swimming - including diving, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, triathlon, weightlifting. The survey was anonymous.

We did not receive responses from equestrian, gymnastics, motorsport, shooting and taekwondo.

Could it be that in 2024 they smelled a great big dirty rat disguised as a benign survey and thought “Oh hell no! 😂”

Plausible as any other explanation.

Besides, the women who are speaking out, don’t strike me as the wilting wallflower type, fact I can’t think of a single woman who does, now I think of it, but maybe that says more about the women I know than making assumptions about women I don’t know 🤔

Biological women are obviously going to lose to a team like this, they should have a trans league.

Jesus, it's all in there, isn't it? Safety, fairness and shut-up about it.

I checked - the league was very proud of itself. Perhaps an isolated incident ?

What do you mean by "a great big dirty rat"? Women would prefer not to be asked their opinions on this stuff?

Not quite. It’s because I’m speculating that they smell a rat, given the context in which they are receiving the survey, and all the context that surrounds their participation in sports, and the potential consequences of speaking out about any of it, that they’re choosing not to engage. Sort of like the way you’d have some randomer ask you “what is a woman?”, I dunno what your immediate thinking would be, but mine amounts to “Ask your mother 😒”.

I’ve no doubt it’s not the only communication elite sportswomen receive from journalists, so they’d know the form, and they’d know that receiving a survey from the BBC doesn’t in any way improve their circumstances, it’s just journalists looking for something to make an article out of it, and they did, in spite of the dismal response rate. What generates far less interest however is their other articles which have come from the same survey:

Given some research has shown puberty and the changes it brings can put young girls off continuing with sport beyond primary school, finding the right kit is crucial to helping keep girls active.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/68542035

One athlete, who is aiming to qualify for the 2028 Olympics and has won junior world titles, told BBC Sport she had "thought about" quitting sport because of cost but is "not ready to".

…

She added that the current economic climate made it "hard" to get sponsorship and that her male counterparts seemed to get more sponsorship than women "even though their achievements are the same".

…

Triathlete Laura Siddall spoke of an expectation of women's sport to "be grateful for where you are now".

"I think we can be grateful, but that doesn't mean we're satisfied," she continued.

"We are super thankful that we've made huge progress and super thankful and grateful that we are here now, but does that mean we should be settling? Because there's still a disparity."

…

Sexism offline is still a concern for sportswomen too, with almost three quarters of respondents saying they had experienced sexism in their sport.

"I'm just so shocked, I'm just on the edge of tears," one athlete told BBC Sport when recounting the time in the past few years that she had gone up on stage to receive a top award for performance and the presenter had announced it was for having the "best bum" in her sport. 

"[It was] in front of a room of all the people that I looked up to and aspired to as a young female," she said. "[I wanted to] just get it over with, just let me get off the stage. Now I know what to say. But then I definitely didn't."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/68604264.amp

There’s no doubt women are conflicted about it, they’re conflicted about a great many things when it comes to their participation in sports and competitions, and of course they’re conflicted about whether or not they should say something, precisely because they’re aware of the potential negative consequences of doing so:

But many have expressed fears over sharing their opinion publicly because of concerns they would be seen as discriminatory.

One told the BBC "your career is over" if you speak on the subject, while another said: "You can receive abuse if you support it or don't support it. Damned if you do, damned if you don't."

https://www.bbc.com/sport/68564019.amp

When has it ever been a thing that anyone, regardless of their sex or gender or sexuality or whatever else, has had the absolute freedom to voice their opinions, with the expectation that there should only be positive consequences and outcomes, and no criticism, condemnation or negative consequences? When the county players in the LGFA were protesting about the conditions in women’s sports, and comparing them to men’s sports, there was hardly a mention of it in the Irish press. There were an abundance of freelancers who could have written articles highlighting women’s experiences in sports, there still are, but the same freelancers instead are choosing to invite their audience to comment on Daniel Radcliffe’s girlfriends appearance, because Radcliffe works with a charity which gave transgender children an opportunity to speak for themselves and have their voices heard.

Can’t be having that, though I’m not going to legitimise her nonsense by telling her to ask her mother 😒

You have no idea how tempted I am to reply with “Ask your mother 😒”, because while that is essentially the point, which is what you asked for… I’d be concerned that having ignored the rest of the post, you might take it out of context and think I was being rude.

There’s a massive difference between a whole sport being ignored, poorly governed, poorly organised, poorly funded and the negative consequences of that for players who wish to participate in the sport under the auspices of the governing body, and the players expected to put up with those poor conditions and be grateful for the opportunity… and the negative consequences for the individual participant who sought to have the organisations policy changed in order to prevent another participant from competing in competitions organised by the governing body who are obligated to adhere to Canadian Federal Human Rights Law, and when the individual doesn’t get their own way they seek to bring the organisation and the sport into disrepute.

It’s kinda the difference between being taken advantage of, and trying to take advantage of a situation only to have it backfire, then trying to play the victim.

Because some people allow an ideology to trump everything else, biology, scientific fact and plain old common sense. It's the same as trying to argue with a religious extremist but even those individuals have the excuse of usually being indoctrinated since they were infants.

How this cheating can be defended is baffling.

Nobody is defending cheating though?

Every organising or governing body in any sport will have their rules, and once athletes are competing within the rules, they’re not cheating. They would be cheating if they were to attempt to circumvent the rules of competition of a particular organisation, but that’s not what’s happening here. For example the International Powerlifting Federation has issued the Canadian Powerlifting Union with an ultimatum to comply with their standards, or else:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12429867/amp/canada-powerlifting-transgender-ultimatum-global-federation.html

Which led to the President of the CPU stepping down from the position, because:

IPF rules state that competitors must prove their gender identity with government-issued ID and disclose their testosterone levels, mirroring similar policies by international sports governing bodies.

Martin said in his resignation adjusting to these rules is not what he signed up for and somebody else would be better suited for the job.

'I wanted to focus on increasing budgets for refereeing and coaching, but the last year has shifted into something I can no longer do,' Martin said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12759245/amp/President-Canadian-Powerlifting-Union-resigns-transgender-controversy.html

Entirely his prerogative, and I would say don’t let the door hit his arse on the way out. At the same time I’d be thinking the IPF can go shyte with their ultimatums, but that means athletes who are transgender who are eligible to compete in Canada may not be eligible to compete in international competitions organised by the IPF. That’s someone else’s problem, same as it’s someone else’s problem outside of Irish competition, which is what I am primarily concerned with, and not, y’know, say the Saudi Women’s Weightlifting Championships:

https://www.abouther.com/node/40286/people/leading-ladies/look%25C2%25A0%25C2%25A0%25C2%25A0first-ever-saudi-women%E2%80%99s-weightlifting-championships

They all look pleased with themselves 😂

I can’t find the story now but there’s a cyclist today who is moaning about the fact that when competing against females, their time has to be slower - they actually slow down so the female cyclists aren’t left so far back.

Cycling is a sport where a male body is more suited (a narrower pelvis and larger lung capacity).

It would have been nice if they could have done it without using religious language. "Assigned at birth" my hole.

That’s an interesting issue - I wasn’t aware of that!