Jamie Hunter: If I didn’t transition I would be dead, it had nothing to do with snooker

Jamie Hunter won her first World Women’s Snooker ranking title at the US Open last week, but far from celebrating her success in the days to come, she has been dealing with an avalanche of abuse.

The 25-year-old came out as transgender in 2019 and started playing on the WWS Tour last year, with her first big win on the snooker table coming in Seattle after winning the Women’s World Billiards Championship earlier this year.

While the billiards triumph happened with little public scrutiny, the win in America did not and it has been a torrid time for Hunter and her family as they deal with criticism, abuse and hurtful attacks.

‘It’s not like when I won the billiards, when I got home, my dad picked us up from the airport, my parents had balloons and banners round the house,’ Hunter told Metro.co.uk.

‘This time my parents met me at the train station and it wasn’t celebratory at all, it was sad. The first thing my mum said to me was, “Are you okay?” That shouldn’t be the first thing she said. You could see the hurt in her eyes from what she’s read about me.’

Social media was rife with accusations of cheating, fellow WWS Tour player Maria Catalano was critical of Hunter’s inclusion, but it was horrific anti-trans abuse that really hurt the most.

‘The trans debate in sport is such a rife thing at the moment and people are going to have their opinions, which they’re allowed to of course, but there’s ways of going about it,’ Jamie said.

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‘A lot of it wasn’t about me being a player, it was about me