Sex Matters in sport – media briefing

Fiona McAnena, Sex Matters’ director of campaigns, chaired a webinar to brief journalists on the Olympic boxing situation and the science of DSDs (disorders of sexual development) in sport, with a question-and-answer session.

Dr Emma Hilton is a developmental biologist widely regarded as a leading voice on the science of sex differences in sport.

Her paper, ‘Transgender Women in the Female Category of Sport: Perspectives on Testosterone Suppression and Performance Advantage’, co-written with Tommy Lundberg, is the most cited on this topic. Her work is cited in multiple international and national sports policies, and she is consulted by international sports federations and as an expert witness in the UK and USA.

Sharron Davies has been one of the UK’s most popular athletes since bursting onto the scene as a 13-year-old Olympian in 1976. Her international career as a swimmer spanned three decades, included numerous major titles and medals, and 200 British records. 

In 1980 she took a silver medal at the Moscow Olympics, finishing just behind Petra Schneider of East Germany, who has since admitted that her performance was heavily drug-enhanced, and this experience informed her recent book Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sport.

Mara Yamauchi is a former elite marathon runner and a two-time Olympian, coming sixth in the Beijing Olympic marathon in 2008. She won the Osaka marathon in 2008 and was runner-up in London in 2009. Between 2006 and 2022, she was the second-fastest British female marathon runner ever (2:23:12). Her book Marathon Wisdom was published in 2022. 

She has spoken extensively in the media and at conferences on this issue. Her analysis of distance running events’ entry policies and results shows the unfairness of self-identification policies and non-binary categories, and their disproportionate impact on female competitors, and she has extensive contacts with female runners who have lost out to males in the Female category.