SWIMMING legend Sharron Davies says there needs to be an “even playing field” for female athletes after World Athletics made moves towards a new open category for trans athletes.

Speaking to Dawn Neesom on GB News the 60-year-old said: “My real problem with all of this is that when I went up last year to give evidence for this bill, we weren’t allowed to speak. So when it was going to affect elite female athletes, elite female athletes were not allowed to give evidence. The only people that were allowed to give evidence were trans activists and men, to talk about women’s sports.

“This is my problem with the bill, is that it was very selective about who was given evidence, and there were people trying to warn that this was going to happen, and they weren’t given a voice. So, it’s sad that we’re in this situation.”

Commenting on the gender debate in Scotland she continued: “The Scottish MPs were given the opportunity to bring in clauses that would protect against sex predators, and they chose not to do that. So it’s really sad that we’ve got to this place but at long last, we are getting a spotlight onto something which a lot of women activists have been talking about for a long time as there is a massive clash of rights.

“In sports, without a doubt, I’ve been talking about it now for five years, physically, females and males are different. The difference in sports is anywhere between 10% and 160%. Males of equal weight hit 160% harder than a female. So in contact sports, it’s incredibly dangerous and that’s just been ignored.”

Explaining why she felt female athletes were being unfairly impacted she said: “What you’re asking women to do at the moment, what you’re asking females to do at the moment, is go into a race knowing that transgender women have a biological advantage. What is the point of us having the world anti-doping agency? That’s supposed to stop people from cheating and having an advantage, we actually say to females, well, you’re not entitled to a level playing field.”

Sharron added: “Unfortunately, in sport, it’s been very much a misogynistic environment anyway. Someone at the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and committees didn’t even have a woman on their committees until 1982. Even now, the people that they have on our committees come from the Middle East, in most cases, or are from China. They don’t come from the Western world where women have a voice and actually say we have a problem with this, please do something about it. So yes, it’s still very, very difficult. Sports, like cycling, are incredibly misogynistic, and one of the worst offenders with regards to actually not listening to their female athletes at all.

“It’s really important that World Athletics asks its athletes, all of them, male and female, because if you go down to the tracks, and you ask the guys and girls that are training, they will without doubt within every single one, including the coaches, say that they think women’s sport should be protected for the female sex. There should be an open and inclusive classification for everybody else because I believe sport is for everyone but it needs to be fair for both sexes.”