Unfair Play: The Battle For Women's Sport

by Sharron Davies

On the face of it, women’s sport is on the rise, garnering more attention and grassroots involvement than ever before. However, the truth is that in many respects progress is stalling, or even falling back.

Sharron Davies is no stranger to battling the routine sexism the sporting world. She missed out on Olympic Gold because of blatant doping among East German athletes in the 1980s, and has never received justice. Now, biological males are being allowed to compete directly against women under the guise of trans ‘self-ID’, a development that could destroy the integrity of female sport. This callous indifference towards women in sport, argue Sharron and journalist Craig Lord, is merely the latest stage in a decades-long history of sexism on the part of sport’s higher-ups.

A strong fightback is required to root out the lingering misogyny that plagues sporting governance, media coverage and popular perceptions. This book provides the facts, science and arguments that will help women in sport get the justice they deserve.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Feminism, Gender, Womens, Sports, Politics

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 22, 2023

Reviews

[Carol El Hawary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book. Unusually for me with non-fiction, I couldn't put it down. I learned so much about the GDR doping scandal that I didn't know, and the utter failure of the IOC to hold anyone to account. In fact, the IOC comes across very badly in this book with their long standing failure to protect women, who came off by far the worst in that situation. Sharron effectively shines a light on how that scandal and failure to protect sports women is being repeated now by allowing post puberty transwomen into women's sport. It's thanks to Sharron and the other people who have put their heads above the parapet that this is starting to change and sport governing bodies are starting to wake up to the fact there will be no women's sport if this continues. Thank you Sharron and Craig.

[Kelsey Banks · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happened to Sharon and her fellow swimmers is an outrage and I can't believe the IOC haven't removed the medals from the GDR. This book lays out exactly what happened and it explains why she is so vocal about keeping women's sport for biological women only. Everyone should read it.

[Ell · Rating 3 out of 5]

an important book going through the shocking treatment of women by sporting bodies in the trans debate. i took stars off because i found the writing style repetitive, it could have done with more editing to get rid of the feeling of "didnt i read this 30 mins ago?"

[Tri · Rating 1 out of 5]

*For an extended commentary and citations, please view the highlights*

This is the first in a series of anti-trans books that covers a more nuanced and controversial topic- Sports! (I’ll go more in-depth about why exactly it’s anti-trans later.)

Admittedly, I’m not much of a sports person, and so I feel like much of the decisions made regarding professional athletes are ones I can’t make much comment on. However, the author veers off topic many times throughout the book from sports’ business to regular trans people business. The author also alludes to feminist viewpoints and concerns outside of trans people’s participation in sports, but equate very different and incredibly detrimental scenarios to that of trans women playing.

Regarding women’s hurdles in sports, there are already many. The author rightly points out pay inequality, coach and other authority abuse, forced doping, sexual abuse and harassment, and other real issues that women and girls of all sports at all levels have historically and currently face. Wrongly, though, is that the author equates these towering systematic problems with that of the few trans women’s participation. The author admits-
“I was never a vocal feminist, to be honest, because I never felt I was persecuted.”
Which rightly shows in how she discusses everything and everyone outside of cis perisex women in sports.
[Note: Perisex meaning someone who is not intersex]

One of the biggest things that comes up when discussing trans people and sports is “What of the intersex athletes?”.
Trans topics often bring along intersex topics as many healthcare and legal recognitions overlap, but when it comes to sports there’s a notable line drawn from varying biological factors and athletic ability. There are cis women who have XY chromosomes, who have a naturally high testosterone compared to other women, and those who may even have testes. The author says that trans women have an advantage, even if they don’t go through a ‘male’ puberty by going on puberty blockers and HRT…so what of the cis women those experiences? They too, apparently in the eyes of the author, are ‘too male’ to be competing with other women, and should be excluded-
“…And how much more frustrating it is to know that you were beaten to a medal by rivals possessing male biological advantages. Those girls live with that every day.”

The author also spends and excruciating amount of space to lament about what trans people do in their own lives outside of sports, including but not limited to their healthcare, non-athletic career opportunities and sponsorships, and various education material for cis people to understand trans lives and identities better. Dylan Mulvaney is brought up because…she’s a trans woman who did adverts…and that’s it. Is there a reason to rope these points into discussion other than for the author to provide a reader into her contempt towards trans people?
Side note: The author had spoken directly with one trans person for this book, and it was Caitlyn Jenner, who has been vehemently conservative and counterintuitive towards other trans people’s lives and liberties.

‘How can we divvy this up while making everyone included and treated fairly?’ is a question that lingers over discussion regarding trans people in sports.

If we divide by hormones, then what happens is every category becomes a semi-mixed one, as humans vary in hormone levels naturally and on HRT. More men and women will end up competing with each other, and this seems to be an outcome some want to avoid. If we divide by external genitalia, it would mean putting pre-op trans people with others of their assigned sex, regardless of hormone (dis)advantages. If we divide by ‘women, men, and trans/nonbinary’, the issue of the sparse amount of trans athletes will be more apparent, especially with sports requiring teams. With a lack of competition, anyone in this third category would likely win just by showing up.

What is the author’s proposal?
“There are two basic models under consideration. The first, which I support, would mean that the category of ‘men’ would become ‘open’ and include all who are biologically male or who have chosen to have testosterone-boosting therapy on transition…Anyone who has a chemical or biological advantage over females…should have no ticket to female sport. Nor should a female who has taken testosterone at any point in their history be allowed to compete with females. Its benefits remain.”
Her solution, in summary, is putting cis perisex women in one category, and *everybody else* in the other category. This ‘solution’ is unbelievably childish. Not only does this not give a proper resolution for differing levels of hormones and physical traits in athletes, this also forces intersex women to compete with men, cis and trans alike.
How exactly is that *more* fair?

The reality is there are simply not that many trans athletes in the first place, and they win and lose just like any athlete. To say that a fraction of 1% of the population is ruining all sports (including chess and pool, as the author laments) for everyone else is absurd.

This book fails to acknowledge the pitfalls of all its athletes, as well as its trans participants. The author turns away from the cis women who outperform their trans peers, and admonishes intersex women and trans men’s fairly earned accomplishments in sports. This book is profoundly missing the issues of women’s sports in favor of focusing on the few trans athletes who win vs the thousands upon thousands of cis athletes who remain as the world keeps turning.

[Conor Heffernan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I rarely review books but I am disappointed with this work. The author has done a great deal of research but I remain unconvinced about the main argument. She collates the East German doping scandals of the 1970s and 80s with the current controversy over trans athletes in sport. The author was a victim of the doping program - losing out on a gold medal because of it and this is an issue of great importance to them.

Some issues I had with the book.

* There are several ad hominem attacks of female legislators in sport. Effectively calling them paper administrators without all evidence. No mention of Anita de Franz and the incredible strides made during the 1990s. Yes gender imbalance is real in sport but whitewashing the huge strides made is not fair. Ironically this was a deeply insulting and misogynistic thing to do
* Sport is corrupt and doping is a major issue. But the author jumps widely from one context to the next. We move from FIFA to the IOC and everyone in between. We also get sweeping and sloppy use of research with generalised claims about the US and UK gender imbalances in media. The crowning example of this was citing research on the USA and UK before suddenly informing us that a 'friend from Germany told her'
* It felt like two books. One on East German doping and one on trans athletes. The linkage between the two is spurious and feels like a false equivalency.
* This is still an evolving issue and is clearly an emotive one. This book is backed by research but it's use of research is concerning. There is a lack of nuance in exploring the scientific papers with no critique of how new and at times observational this data is. Also the absence of conversations around intersex athletes like castor semanya is very odd. Likewise no real engagement with average biological advantages some athletes have.
* The author is more concerned about being labelled transphobic than the actual phenomenon of transphobia in general and the clearly verifiable transphobia that exists in society. They seem to have been attacked by trans advocates in the past and that is clearly wrong but take sport aside and realise this is a group that has been demonized in modern society with clearly worse health markers than gen pop. Literally no consideration for the stigma and abuse these people face in general society and how books like this may contribute to it.
*A completely separate issue from sport is the continual use of transwomens former names. Even if you disagree vehemently with transwomen in sport. It is cruel to deadname individuals when we know the community doesn't appreciate it.
* Misogyny exists in sport. And it is wrong but equating gender pay gaps and trans women is very odd.
* The extent of the issue. There is little effort made here to contextualise the extent of trans athletes in sport. Or why a tiny minority of athletes receive such fear and panic. There is a sense here that transatheltes will completely overtake female ones

Anyway. There's more here but you'll find critiques elsewhere. Given the press this book got I expected a lot more than false equivalences, poor use of research and a negation of trans people's experiences. Likely not a popular response to this but the book fell flat. I came in looking for a nuanced discussion and this was poor. If anyone is interested Noah riseman has an open access article of Australian transwomens experiences where he actually speaks with transatheltes. Their voice is not in this book. Radical idea. What if she spoke with the group she is fighting against?

You'll notice in this review I've not sided with either camp because this is a complex issue and not one easily answered. That complexity is missing here. I'm somewhat shocked this is being treated with such reverence but sign of the times I guess.

This is an issue that is controversial which I understand but books like this do no side any favours. A bare minimum is a direct and open conversation that treats everyone with respect and doesn't engage in whataboutism.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written and a well researched polemic on why, for fairness and safety, there are two categories in which athletes compete - either as biological females or biological males.

[Brendan Newport · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfair Play probably wouldn't be on my reading list, though I'm still a swimmer and like many adolescent boys in the 1980s, was in love with Sharron, the pin-up girl for British sports.

I came to Sharron and Craig Lords book through an unusual route, researching for a writing project of my own. I found a number of references online to Sharron being accused of being 'far-right', a 'racist', even a reference to a restauranter who had hosted her as being a'Nazi bigot'.

Sharron Davies? The same Sharron Davies who has mixed-race children all now grown-up) from her s marriage to Derek Redmond (famous for his completion of a 400m relay lap with a torn hamstring)? The same Sharron Davies targeted by neo-Nazi group Combat 18 in 1994 whose 'Red Watch' campaign targeted politicians, ethnic minorities, and even police officers? High-profile mixed race couples, like Sharron and Derek were targeted, receiving hate mail after they married.

The same Sharron Davies who, once again together with Derek, were amongst the targets of a Danish neo-Nazi organisation who had planned to send them a letter bomb, before three of its members had been arrested, convicted and jailed by a Copenhagen Court in September 1997? That Sharron Davies?

It seemed a little odd, and so Unfair Play was purchased.

This is book which sticks to its title. It's about unfairness in sport. It's target throughout is the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, which effectively turned a blind eye to the obvious doping campaign instigated by the East German sporting body for its athletes, notably female swimmers, throughout the 1970s and 80s. Sharron herself and many of her peers were robbed of their rightful podium places and medals because of that cheating, and the IOC has consistently failed to correct those wrongs.

The first 4 chapters are concerned with that sustained cheating, and the utter failure of the IOC to deal with it then and later, even after criminal convictions were secured against those who ran the program and administered the drugs (notably testosterone) to young athletes, many whom would suffer long-term medical problems and often early death.

Unusually, Craig Lord, himself a pretty decent national swimmer and sports reporter, isn't a sort of 'ghost writer' for Unfair Play (like Christopher Priest is for Sally Gunnell's fabulous autobiography Running Tall). Rather the book is in Sharron's voice, but she regularly refers to research Craig has performed, interviews he's conducted as a journalist, and his own experiences in sport.

Chapter 5 onwards is really a repeat of the first four chapters, but now the cheating Sharron is referring-to is the inclusion of male-bodied competitors in female events and sports. Some people might refer to the subject as 'complicated' or 'sensitive' but there's nothing complicated or sensitive about Sharron's approach to this; the reader is bludgeoned with a huge range of scientific facts, academic findings, and research. Each argument for including male-bodied competitors is shredded, starting with the oft-cited one - women and girls should just try harder. The concept of Meaningful Competition as a replacement for far competition is trampled. Other efforts at arguments are put through the shredder. Any non-doped competitor lining-up in a 400m medley and finding Sharron in getting set in one of the adjoining lanes would be discouraged!

It is though Chapter 6 Sporting Differences where Sharron and Craig swap the lawnmower for Hellfire missiles and a huge battery of 120mm artillery guns, finishing-off with a few rounds of carpet-bombing with B-52's. 'Cos that chapter utterly destroys any last vestiges of reasonable support for male inclusion in women and girls sports.

Once again though, the target isn't the perceived 'cheaters'. Just as before for the doping chapters, Davies' ire is turned onto the IOC, not the male-born competitors. Her focus remains resolutely on the IOC and its associated national bodies. There are some notable side-swipes, particularly against the WSF - the Women's Sports Foundation, founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King. In 2021 the WSF demanded that three-times Olympic Gold swimmer and rape survivor Nancy Hogshead-Makar desist from advocating for athletes sexual safety when her contract was up for renewal after working for 30 years for the WSF. Hogshead-Makar declined to sign and walked away. It remains a mystery how the WSF continues to operate, though it's announcements on Twitter receive virtually no comments, ever. The organisation is now largely ignored and irrelevant, by-passed by new organisations that are more attuned to the needs of women & girls pursuing sports.

After Chapter 6 though, there's probably little left for Unfair Play to do. I felt it went into 'cruise mode' for a bit, adding more data on top of more findings. Chapter 12 Why Girls' Sports Matters is a welcome change, though it's a chapter that should perhaps have been moved to the front of the book. The final chapters are concerned with changes made to many (though not all) national sporting bodies rules, though the IOC still comes in for repeated barrages, not least for its brief support for allowing Russia and Belarus to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Truth and Reconciliation provides a route for the IOC to gain some respect if it chooses, as Sharron says, (by) exorcising the ghosts of a rotten past. There's five (5!) Appendices and an extensive Notes section.

One glaring omission is the absence of an index, and a book of this nature really demands one. That aside, Sharron's writing, though often striden, is very personable. And no, she's certainly not 'far-right'.

[Wendy Storey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent explanation of the battles women in sport have faced over years...and are continuing to face. Really well written.

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

Given the Sports Book Award shortlisting I was prepared to give this a chance against my instinct, assuming that a topic that only seems to be covered by idealogically entrenched parties wouldn't reveal that much. This was emotionally charged, and terribly written, and considering the importance of the safety of women, the parties she used to back up her arguments were sometimes strange bedfellows.

The basic premise was that she had been denied gold due to women who had been given drugs by East Germany, and that trans women were an equivalent threat to sportswomen today, who will deny women born as girls their deserved medals and sponsorship, while also posing a threat to women's safety on the sports field and in the changing room. To start with, the argument stayed on safer ground, that women have been discriminated against in sport by men, with too little female representation in senior positions.

The early sections were also badly written, in a style that was clearly intended to be personal and heartfelt but came across as far too casual and making assertions such as 'Fact: there are a lot more male spectators on a Saturday afternoon than female spectators' when referring to market forces. This is true, but no reference was given and there are more female spectators at men's events than women's too (More or Less found the same proportion of m/f TV viewers for international football tournaments, just higher figures for men's football), so what is your point?

The arguments were poor too, which was the real failing of the book. Davies spent a lot of time showing that male elite athletes are better than female elite athletes, to argue against the strawman that women are considered 'a bit lazy' which is why they are not as fast as Usain Bolt. I don't consider this a particularly mainstream view, and was just one disingenuous argument to make her opponents seem unreasonable. As far as I am aware, the argument is that post-transition trans women have no inherent athletic advantage over cisgender women, and that trans women should be allowed to compete in women-only competitive events. There was some of this in the book, but much more of it was spent asserting again and again that elite male athletes are better than elite female athletes.

There were some studies that supported the view that post-transition trans women remained stronger than birth women a long time after gender reconstructive surgery, based on physical tests by US armed forces, which would indicate that the effect on athletic performance should be looked into. It didn't seem clear that this would confer an advantage in every sport though, just as we have weight categories for boxing but not rugby or tennis. This was a typical aspect of the book though, making big logical leaps to 'prove' the science. One of the studies used to support the converse view, that after transition the advantage was lessened significantly, did look dodgy, but even then it was misrepresented by Davies. The performance was measured relative to sex and age, but she argued that people are worse athletes when they are older - undeniably true, and clearly why age-grading was used as the benchmark. She therefore had to rely on case studies of trans athletes, although one of these was a boys junior record holder! Another was a national team representative when younger. The only case study which really supported her argument was that of Lia Thomas, which to be fair is strongly indicative of a residual physical advantage.

As with all 'gender critical' activists, Davies was keen to stress she was not transphobic, only pro-women, but I wasn't convinced. After railing against abuse of women, she used a quote from convicted rapist Mike Tyson to support her argument, and later used US Republican arguments about the 'safety of women', although this may not be hypocritical as she didn't state her own view on abortions. Her attitude to transgender people was supposedly supportive, but she refered to men 'deciding to identify' as women, calling to mind the arguments of old that people 'choose to be gay', and said birth males can't be women as they can never get pregnant (I presume then, that birth women who can't get pregnant are also barred from competition?). While leaning on the argument that female athletes' mental health will suffer when they lose to trans women, the mental health and suicidal thoughts of trans people were flippantly dismissed. Davies really is a piece of work.

After trying to remain in the statistical realm, towards the end we got a lot of 'facts' (biology) versus 'feelings' (identification), and yet there was little quality evidence when it came to the dangers to women. Trans women getting changed is clearly not the same as 'indecent exposure' which was mentioned several times, and the arguments about sporting safety were based on perception, and not an increased prevalence of injuries. Feelings trumping facts were fine when it suited her, and while she declined to reveal who funds Fair Play in Sport, the group she is part of, and attacking the baseless accusations of the trans lobby that there is nefarious money at play, she made it seem as though the Gender Industry was incentivising people to transition. The explicitly stated idea, that ordinary males would undergo the physical and mental effects of transition with surgery, just so they can become extraordinary female athletes (who, we are reminded, get little media attention or money) was absolutely barmy.

Perhaps a well-reasoned book will come out that shows trans athletes do have an unfair advantage over birth women, and that competing on the same field is dangerous. But this wasn't it, although some of it was so bad as to be inadvertently funny.

[Sweetwilliam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author, Sharon Davies was an Olympic Swimmer in the 70’s and 80’s for the UK. Ms. Davies tells the story of how a tiny East Block country, the GDR, dominated women’s swimming over a two-decade period, winning ~70% of the medals around the same time frame as when she was racing. How was East Germany able to do this? Easy. They forced their female athletes to ingest testosterone. The signs were everywhere but the IOC chose to look the other way. In fact, several members of the GDR were allowed to serve on the Olympic Anti-Doping Committee. This allowed them to understand the IOC detection methods and how to get around them. Ms. Davies won a silver medal and so many women were cheated out of medals by women from the GDR. These East German women looked different. They had deep voices, acne, and body hair everywhere. It was obvious that the GDR swimmers were cheating but the IOC really didn’t care because it was just women’s sports. The GDR was allowed to do this until the Berlin wall came down. A former GDR discus thrower was able to save the evidence from the shredder. The cheating that was already obvious became public. Women of the GDR Olympic team suffered irreparable long-term damage to their health from the massive doses of male hormone that they were forced to take. Many tried to turn in their medals because as they said, “we didn’t earn them.” A member of the IOC told these women to keep them. They weren’t the only ones cheating.

Sharon Davies believes that men being allowed to compete in women’s sports today is very similar to the cheating by the East Germans in the ‘70s and ‘80s. There is no credible data that concludes that a man, ingesting female hormone over a year would erase the advantage that a transwoman has over a woman. The testosterone levels allowed by transwomen who compete today are 10x greater than Sharon Davies' testosterone level when she was racing. Mrs. Davies argues that once a male body goes through puberty, there is no magic pill that will erase the male advantage. It is like hard boiling an egg. You cannot get that raw egg back once it is cooked. This explains why that 14-year-old boys Dallas, TX based soccer team defeated the US Woman’s gold medal team by a wide margin. The book is filled with useful scientific data in support of separate sports for women.

I can’t believe we are still having this discussion. I watch highlights of a women’s track and field, swimming, cycling, skateboarding, surfing, and even golf events and there are these bulky, hulking figures with huge heads, jutting chins, hands, arms, and legs zipping by petite women and we all must stand back and accept the absurdity of this, or we are labeled as bigots? Read Sharon Davies’ book and then read the Emperor’s New Clothes. This nonsense must stop. It is pure misogyny.

[Jeff Francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes there is so much spoken/written-about the trans-women-in-sports debate, it’d be reasonable to wonder what any new book could possibly add. With Sharron Davies’s (and Craig Lord’s) “Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sports,” the answer is a gut-punch: Davies was an Olympic swimmer who lost out on medals due to competing with East Germans in the late-‘70s/early-‘80s, i.e., females doped with steroids so brazenly it was a cultural punchline for years (there’s even a reference in early “Simpsons”).

Point is, Davies—a sports pundit in her native UK—likens the East German doping scandal to the new movement allowing biological males, or trans females, to play in women’s sports. She even makes the case that in many ways it’s worse.

True, if you’ve followed this debate, you’ve heard many of these positions before, but they’ve rarely been stated with such concise authority. Davies and Lord statistically break down how biological males have inherent advantages over biological females in sports (something virtually every person on earth believed even a few years ago, but now requires reiteration). They also enumerate how many of the feelgood, so-called ‘compromises’ simply aren’t tenable (days-old news that the World Cup swimming event in Berlin cancelled its ‘open’ category because no one signed up proves this view perfectly).

“Unfair Play” is not without its missteps. Davies actually trots out the horse-corpse feminist lament, “If a girl is said to have slept around, she’s a slut, whereas a man doing that is just a lad.” Despite terms lost in translation (I’d always heard “stud” in that example), resorting to such clichés undermines Davies’s larger thesis—which is damned powerful on its own.

Part Olympian memoir, part Cold-War snapshot, and part staking-out-an-unequivocal-side-in-a-contentious-social-debate, “Unfair Play” deserves not only an audience, but a larger respect.

[Celia Martins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfair Play was an extremely interesting — and at times shocking — read. One of the aspects that stood out most to me was the discussion of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and its sports policies. The book highlights the severe impact these policies had on German female athletes who were subjected to doping without their consent — a serious violation with long-term consequences — as well as on the athletes who were forced to compete against them, knowing they were taking part in an unequal contest.

The book also shows how similar dynamics affect female athletes today, including those who compete while feeling that something is fundamentally unfair, but without institutional support or meaningful action from governing bodies such as the IOC.

I believe everyone should be free to live according to how they identify, with their rights protected and without fear. At the same time, particularly in competitive sport, inclusion should not come at the expense of women’s rights. A fair system must be able to protect the rights of transgender women while also safeguarding fairness and opportunity for female athletes.

One of the reasons I am giving four stars instead of five is that I would have liked to see more focus on transgender men and the specific difficulties they face. As I see it, they are left with no real choice: they cannot compete in women’s categories without concerns about unfair advantage, yet because they went through female puberty, they also have no clear or fair path to compete against biological males.

Overall, the book raises important and necessary questions, but I was left wanting more discussion around how the rights of all athletes can be respected in practice.

[Brian Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book as it was short listed for the sports' book award and was very disappointed.
I absolutely agree with Davies with regards her campaigns for "female only" sport and her fight with the IOC to change Olympic results where Testosterone fuelled East Germans win medals. This is a very personal subject and the bitterness comes through in her writing.
However, as the book continues the constant moaning gets tiresome but it's the constant repetition which is particularly annoying and frustrating.
Evidently the trans women in sport has been well researched by Davies but it's not concise enough on what's included. This contributes significantly to the repetition too with many different sports have similar conclusions.
The book is therefore overly long at 300 pages.
I don't agree with Davies regarding her view that Pippa York shouldn't have a view on trans women in female sport because he once failed a drug test for Testosterone. He has as much right as Davies as he used the drug and knows the effects personally in addition to actually being a trans woman.
Parkrun, a mass participation, public health initiative is also very unfairly in the line of fire for banning records. I don't understand how park runners are now unable to test their speed and skills in the events. The events are still timed and it's only a very small minority who aspire to records anyway.
The small positive I took from the book was the East German data on Testosterone abuse in terms of the lengths that were gone to and how lives were destroyed. While I sympathise with Davies these children are the real victims.

[Zoe Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A controversial author and sports activist is how you might describe Sharon Davies. As a former elite swimmer she has most recently been in the limelight over her view and activism that female sport should be for biological females.

This book was also one of the few William Hill Sports books of the year written by a woman about women’s sports. And I’m a fan of sports and often look at this shortlist each year.

There are often some perhaps non politically correct and one sided terminologies used that stand out but this book is from my point of view well researched.

Everyone latches on to their own facts but it did stick with me the biological advantage of male born athletes stats and also that it has been the case that athletes who identify as women have been technically allowed to compete in the female category with higher testosterone levels that are allowed for biological females. That does not appear to be fair play.
That is also before the physical advantage of height, size, strength and other categories that Davies lists.

Davies facts on the GDR doping advantage during her time at the highest level of swimming are unbelievable- GDR athletes winning the vast majority of swimming medals on offer at say Moscow 1980 vs the USA or China given the size of the country (and vs any previous or following Olympics) clearly demonstrated an unfair advantage.

An interesting and informative read Despite some of the aggressive language. Would highly recommend.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author has great insight into the consequences of unfair play in women's sports because of her experience swimming under the GDR doping scandal. But it is obvious she is not a writer. The first few chapters are repetitive, a little chaotic, and hard to get through. Once she moves past that time and into the current transgender issues, the chapters becomes much cleaner and clearer.
Very good information and insight into the world of women's sports.

[Katherine White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really Intersting read looking at the history of women’s acceptance in sport right up to the current issue of keeping women’s sport fair. Full of facts that, in my mind, lead to only one conclusion - that women’s sport needs to be kept for biological women alone. Only negative is the style - it randomly seems to repeat sentences and ideas which can make it quite slow going to read.

[Mark Underwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an important book. This is a necessary book. I just wished that it was a better written book.
It is, in essence, four or five brilliant essays stretched out to fit a book format.
I’m glad that it exists, though. Long may she has the strength to keep fighting the good fight for our girls and women.

[Jane Coles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that everyone should read. Using scientific studies and law quotations as well as historical events, Sharron proves that biological men do have physical advantages and, as such, should not be included in female sports or spaces, for that matter. Well done Sharron and her co-author, Craig for a well written book.

[Lilac · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. Oh right I don’t care about sports.


I definitely think that human females need a sports category of our own, but I’ve never figured out what’s going on in (American) football because I just can’t get myself to care enough to pay attention. This book was much the same.

[Ruth Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and informative but a bit too long and repetitive

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is timely and well argued but could have used a more ruthless edit to excise the (far too) many repetitions.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comprehensive, impassioned and absolutely critical for this current era in sports

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important and at times shocking books about the scandalous treatment of women in sport

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book. A clear case for fairness, women's rights, and common sense.

[Lisa Proctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic read based on science and evidence. Having swum against the GDR women this really resonated with me and really helped fully understand the argument for protecting sport for women.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great insight into the dedication it takes to compete fairly at the highest level and why she is so motivated to defend the principle of fair competition.

[Stacey Handler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye-opening regarding the GDR cheating and their abuse of the young athletes under their care. These girls were scarred, physically and mentally and those who conducted the systematic abuse were never bought to justice. Those who lost out on medals weren't though important enough to be awarded the medals later. They were only women after all, and the IOC didn't need anymore scandal.
Women haven't had fair and equal sporting representation for very long, before the transgender agenda started to take over the sporting bodies, who begun to believe men who 'changed gender' lost all their male physical advantages. Though why anyone would or could believe such nonsense is beyond me, and beyond Sharron Davies. She catalogues the failures of virtually every sporting body, too cowardly or too stupid or misogynistic, to stand up for women. It's another heartbreaking story of women being pushed aside so men can feel better and be rewarded.
Great book, well written, but will make you angry.

[Janet Marsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

My god how I underestimated Sharron Davies. I thought of her as a great swimmer, a Gladiator, very pretty, promoting sport, etc. I recently watched a few interviews with her (discussing her book) and she came across as incredibly articulate and reasoned so I was curious.

I read it and thought, wow - it is meticulously researched, but also offered rational arguments. I am hardly sporting myself and thought, well, this has nothing to do with me. How wrong was I.

Don't get into an argument with me in the pub about men in women's sport. I've got Sharron (and Colin) to back me up.

[Juliet Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boom boom boom boom boom. Sharron rattles off persuasive, factual, meticulously researched reasons why women's sport must be ringfenced for biological women.

I particularly enjoyed Sharron's account of her own career and the outrageous injustice meted out to her, and so many other women, as a result of the GDR state doping scandal which the IOC have declined to put right.