Rachel Johnson asks if a 'Trans Olympics' would be fairer to natal and trans women

20 February 2022, 22:00

Rachel Johnson: 'Is there any scope for having a Trans Olympics?'

Rachel Johnson asks whether a separate "Trans Olympics" would be fairer to natal and trans women, warning "nobody will take women's sport seriously if trans women are going to win all the prizes".

It comes as two trans women, Lia Thomas and Iszac Henig, swam the fastest relay times at the Ivy League Women's Championship on Wednesday.

Rachel outlined a "generational divide" on the issue, stating: "A lot of women my age, 40 to the Queen's age, probably think that it's jolly unfair that somebody who was born a man can compete in a women's sport, having identified or transitioned to become a trans woman, and then win, leaving the women trailing in her wake."

Rachel gave the example of Lia Thomas who "didn't have striking success in the pool, transitioned and is now smashing records", as the swimmer this week set a record for the 200-yard freestyle in the US' Ivy League university swimming championships.

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"Nobody will take women's sport seriously - and it's hard enough getting people to take women's tennis seriously enough during something like Wimbledon - if trans women are going to win all the prizes," Rachel said.

Admitting she "wasn't sure" if it was a good idea, Rachel asked: "Would there be any scope for having a Trans Olympics, where you don't have natal men competing against natal women unless they're all trans?

"And then they can choose how they want to compete. Make it a bit like the Brits where they've got rid of gender categories, if you want to have a, as it were, competition in which you don't have that unfairness which is absolutely germane in the DNA of it."

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