England Hockey declares women’s game for ‘females at birth’ only

Only players “recorded female at birth” will be allowed to play in the women’s game, England Hockey has announced.

The sport’s ruling body said changes to its Trans and Non-Binary Participation Policy are based on “current available evidence”. The new policy applies from 1 September.

The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) also recently decided to ban men from women’s competitive events. In addition, it restricted its venues’ communal changing rooms on the basis of biological sex.

Common sense

Announcing its changes, England Hockey said that the “physical strength, stamina or physique” of an average biological woman “would put them at a disadvantage” compared to the average biological man.

It said it had “placed necessary and proportionate restrictions” on eligibility for male players who identify as women or ‘non-binary’, in the “spirit of fairness in competition”.

Another sport sees sense

Former Olympian Sharron Davies MBE congratulated the association for “putting safety and fairness for your female players first in sport for females”.

Welcoming the reinstatement of the female-only hockey category, sports policy consultant Cathy Devine said: “Quite right. Another sport sees sense.”

Risk of alienation

The LTA also recently stated that testosterone suppression in tennis is unlikely to reduce men’s “significant” biological advantage which could make “competition potentially unfair”.

For example, the governing body explained that this “includes longer levers with which to reach and hit the ball and increased cardio-vascular capacity means being able to get around the court more easily”.

Last year, tennis great Martina Navratilova warned that trans ideology, especially gender self-identification, risks alienating a generation of women from participating in sport.