‘It really concerns me’: Top Aussie runner speaks out against transgender athlete
An Australian athletics champion has spoken out against an American transgender athlete who just won a national title.
Cece Telfer, a transgender woman who used to go by Craig, is a college athlete who won the 400m women’s hurdles by more than a second last Saturday.
Before transitioning, she competed against other men and was ranked outside the top 200 runners in college athletics.
In just its 7th year of existence, the @FPURavensXCTF has its first national champion. Senior CeCe Telfer took control of the 400-meter hurdles on Sat. PM and went on to post victory w/ a personal best time of 57.53. Read more here; https://t.co/vCukMSb7vS pic.twitter.com/gE3v7HQ3Ml
— Franklin Pierce (@FPUniversity) May 26, 2019
3 x Commonwealth Games gold medallist Tamsyn Manou (née Tamsyn Lewis) tells Ben Fordham it’s concerning many women feel they can’t speak out about the issue.
“The female category isn’t being protected enough in elite women’s sport at the moment.
“I know that it’s a grey area… but it really concerns me.
“I think that it’s important that people understand it’s not about gender identity. This is an issue that is surrounding what you were born as, biologically what your sex is.
“There is just way too much advantage with a male competing against a female.”
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2 x Commonwealth Games gold medallist Jane Flemming called in to add to Tamsyn’s comments, and tells Ben about the significant advantages men have over women.
“They have larger oxygenisation of their blood, so they’re carrying more oxygen around than what a female would.
“They absolutely have increased bone strength, and for a lot of particularly distance and endurance-based female athletes, they go through a lot of bone problems because of the volume of the training they have to do.
“They also have increased muscle bulk.”
Click PLAY below to hear the full interview