UK Sport puts ‘inclusion’ first after PM comments on transgender women in sport

UK Sport chiefs have stopped short of echoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suggestion that transgender women should be barred from female-only sporting events, maintaining eligibility rules must be established on a sport-by-sport basis.

And chief executive Sally Munday said the government-led funding agency would have no hesitation in giving financial backing to any athlete irrespective of gender, provided they were deemed worthy and eligible by their respective national governing body.

Referencing the case of the transgender cyclist Emily Bridges, who was recently ruled ineligible to compete in the national championships by cycling’s world governing body, the Prime Minister said on Wednesday that such a ban “seems sensible”.

But UK Sport is insistent that each sport must take its own responsibility for shaping rules and protocols on the eligibility of transgender athletes, given the vast range of complexities involved.

Munday said: “We have been really clear in our guidance – it is down to sports to decide and to work with their international federations about what the rules should be.

“What is really important is that we make sure as a sporting industry that we are inclusive, that we are welcoming, and that we enable everyone who wants to play sport to play sport.

“When inclusion bumps up against fairness and safety, it’s down to an individual sport to consider and make the decisions that are appropriate for that sport.”

UK Sport’s stance mirrors the findings in a review into non-elite sport by the Sports Councils Equality Group – of which it was a part – last year, that concluded that existing gender equality regulations were not fit for purpose.

Among a number of conclusions made by the Group was a proposal that