Larry Williams Drive

The decision by the international swimming body to ban trans women from female competition is massive.As far as I can tell, this is the first sports body to outright ban trans women from competing against biological women.Other sporting bodies have tried to do it by mucking around with testosterone rules but this the first decision where they simply say no.I’ve got to applaud it.That can’t have been an idea decision to make because no one wants to be unkind to trans women.No one wants to exclude them.But there are two competing values here: inclusion and fairness.I honestly believe most good people want to include trans women but they also want to be fair.And these two values inclusion and fairness clash with each other when it comes to trans women in sports because including trans-women is not fair on biological women.Who are we kidding?  It’s not a fair competition.  Male bodies are stronger than female bodies.Dave Gerrard is a former Olympic swimmer, an Emeritus Professor of Sports Medicine at Otago Univer