“font-size: 11pt”>The listing of “born male” or “genetically male” under terms to avoid in Paris – along with a blanket guideline to replace “identifies as” with “is” – has sparked outrage among many ex-Olympians. Inga Thompson, a cyclist who represented the US at three Olympics, said: “The IOC media have allowed themselves to be bought, because deep down, they never wanted women to be in sports. The ultimate misogynist movement.”
Alison Sydor, who competed for Canada in mountain biking at Atlanta 1996, pointed out that the IOC had cited GLAAD, an American LGBT advocacy group, as a leading authority on the subject. Only this week, GLAAD promoted a T-shirt bearing the message: “No TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists).” “The IOC sure know how to pick a partner to lecture everyone about dehumanising language,” Sydor wrote.
Sharron Davies, the British swimming champion who took silver in Moscow in 1980, retweeted a post from Cathy Devine, a former lecturer in sport and physical activity at the University of Cumbria, branding the IOC’s document “breathtakingly sexist and complete propaganda”. Despite the backlash, Yiannis Exarchos, chief executive of Olympic Broadcasting Services, promised that his team in Paris would use the guidelines as “our Bible”.
This is not looking good….
Leave a Reply