The organizers of the London Marathon have declared that biological transgender people may still compete against women in the next race, despite the recent decision of the Supreme Court that defends the reality of biological sex.
The director of the London Marathon race, Hugh Berda, said Wednesday that contestants can compete against those in the sex with which they identify in the main race of mass participation.
However, the organization pointed out that transgender runners would not be eligible for women’s races in elite, championship or “good for age” categories, as prohibited by World Athletics guidelines, BBC reported.
Last week, a ruling from the Supreme Court discovered that the sexes are defined by their biologies under the Equality Law, which probably means that allegedly transgender people would be forbidden to be able to launch the verification of claims of the defendants, including areas such as bathrooms only for women, costumes and sports.
Instead of implementing the ruling immediately, the organizers of the London Marathon said they would wait until they receive reports on the ruling of the Commission on Equality and Human Rights and Sport England before changing their policies.
However, other sports bodies already restrict access to their events before the ruling of the Supreme Court, including British cycling, the British drop, the rugby soccer union (RFU) and the athletics of the United Kingdom, among others.
The London marathon previously obtained controversy over its transgender policy. In 2023, “Glenique Frank”, who competed in the New York Marathon the previous year as “Canada“In the male category, he beat almost 14,000 women in the London Marathon to reach 6,160º of 20,123 women after entering the race as a woman.
If Frank had competed in the male category, he would have placed 15,386º. After the race, Frank proudly proclaimed in an interview with the BBC that the performance was a demonstration of “girl’s power.”
Former British Olympic and one of the fastest women in history, Mara Yamauchi, criticized Frank for competing against women as a biological man, saying: “Almost 14,000 women ended up in a worse finishing position due to him … men in the women’s category are unfair to women.”
Frank then apologized for entertaining the women’s career, and since then he has advocated a separate transgender competition in the marathon race.
