A
man who identifies as a woman
ran in the
London
Marathon on Sunday after running the
New York City
marathon in November 2022 as a man.
Glen Frank, who ran as Gleneique Frank in the London Marathon, didn’t win the London Marathon nor the New York City Marathon. Still, Frank credited “girl power” for his run in a BBC interview. Frank beat 14,000 female runners in that race.
Mara Yamauchi, a woman who finished sixth in the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was furious after seeing Frank’s remarks. “Males in the [female] category is UNFAIR for females,” the Olympian
tweeted
. Making her point about the physiological differences between men and women, in another
tweet,
Yamauchi noted that even when she was “ranked second in the world” as a woman, “at least 1300 men ran faster than me.”
She made her point again when she
reviewed the results
of the Jersey City Marathon on Sunday, which has three categories: male, female, and nonbinary. The winner of the marathon in the nonbinary category, who she said was male, won $5,000 for running a time of 2:29:33, finishing 12th overall. Yet six men ran faster, presumably in the male category, and won nothing. This surely seems like a way to work the system.
Frank is in his 50s and well past puberty. According to his
social media photos
, he seems to have lived and run all kinds of distance
races
as a man until just 2019. At that point, the U.K. resident began to live and enter races as female, especially in the U.K., where athletic institutions honor gender identity with little to no proof of a social or medical transition. Frank had to run against men in the United States because that’s what’s on his passport and that’s what the New York Marathon rules require.
True, U.K. Athletics
recently decided that only
biological women could compete in the female category in its events. The rule went into effect March 31. But because Frank registered before the ban was announced, he was allowed in the female category in the London Marathon this year. The London Marathon also had a nonbinary category for the first time this year too, although biological men tend to compete in, and win in, that category as well.
Given the way the London Marathon played out this year, it’s clear that the rules and regulations put forth by athletic institutions the transgender community often claims seem “transphobic” or harsh are there not to ban transgender athletes but to preserve fair play among women. The guidelines are there to highlight and protect the differences between men and women rather than allowing a select few biological men to compete as transgender and beat thousands of other women. Women must urge athletic institutions across the globe to consider carefully implementing guidelines for other sports to ensure fair play.
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Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She is an opinion columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
