Women's shot put champion Amelia Strickler spoke out against the World Athletics' initial proposal for revised guidelines regarding transgender athletes.
Strickler warned Fox News host Tucker Carlson that allowing biological males to compete in women's shot put would delegitimize the sport.
The international sports body World Athletics submitted a proposal limiting the maximum amount of testosterone for transgender women to 2.5 nanomoles per liter of blood, a level that would have to be maintained for two years, according to BBC, which cited policy documents it obtained. Currently, World Athletics is enforcing 5 nanomoles per liter of blood for a period of one year.
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Carlson said "very few athletes feel like addressing this in public."
"I think a lot of people are really reluctant to address this and really stick up for women's sport just because they have contracts [and] sponsors," Strickler, who was born in America but plays for Britain, said. "I know for a fact people's agents have told them not to speak on it to risk, you know, any kind of tag of homophobic to them, and it's certainly not about that — it's about protecting women's sport."
Team USA World Masters track athlete Cynthia Monteleone said in 2022 she was advised by Team USA Track & Field to keep quiet after she raised concerns over competing against a biologically born male during the 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships in Spain.
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In 2022, President Biden while speaking at a White House event said, "racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia — they are all connected," in response to the criticism of surgeons who perform transgender surgeries.
Carlson added that "there's nothing by definition homophobic about wanting women's sports for women."
Strickler responded by saying, "Everyone I personally have spoken to completely agrees."
"We need to protect the women's category. Anyone who wants to identify as a woman, by all means, please do sport, but we just have to protect the women's category so it's not biological males taking those records, taking those medals, sponsorships, etc. We have to, you know, keep it for women," Strickler said.
Strickler cautioned that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women's shot put would take away "countless opportunities" from women who had worked hard to be there.
A final decision by World Athletics on its proposal is expected by March.
