Swimmer Emma McKeon joins debate on banning transgender women from elite sport

Australia’s most decorated Olympian Emma McKeon has joined the debate on transgender competitors in sport, weighing in on competing against ‘people who are biologically male’.

Australia’s most decorated Olympian Emma McKeon has joined the debate on transgender competitors in elite sport, saying it was “just not fair” to expect women to compete against people who were biologically male.

The Gold Coast swim star said sport had to “deal with” the issue, which has become a divisive topic in the lead-up to the May 21 Federal Election.

“I mean, I personally wouldn’t want to be racing against someone who is biologically a male, so that’s a concern,” McKeon said.

“It’s not a new thing, but it’s new in that sport, swimming, are going to have to deal with it.”

McKeon was speaking at Griffith University’s A Better Future For All series at the Home of the Arts on Tuesday.

Olympic champion Emma McKeon on the Gold Coast. Picture Glenn Hampson

While she was concerned about the impact of transgender athletes on women’s sport, she said it was something she was unlikely to encounter herself.

“I don’t think I’m going to have to race against a trans swimmer, I don’t think it’s going to come to that point,” she said.

“But now that it’s a growing thing, the sport has to think about how to handle it and how to deal with it, because you do want to be inclusive, but you don’t want to have females racing against swimmers who are biologically male because it’s just not fair.”

Gold medallists Kaylee McKeown, Chelsea Hodges Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell of Team Australia pose on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women's 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final on day nine of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre on August 01, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Picture: Xavier Laine/Getty Images

McKeon, a UNICEF supporter, holds a record 11 Olympic medals (five gold) in total, including a record seven (four gold) from the 2020 Tokyo games.

She’s also on track to become Australia’s most prolific Commonwealth Games medallist after scoring a judge’s pick entry to Birmingham, where she could enter up to six events.

Calls to ban transgender women from elite sport have become a political football in recent weeks after Scott Morrison backed, then backed away from, a private member’s bill to that effect.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on the campaign trail on Wednesday.

Mr Morrison’s hand-picked candidate for the NSW seat of Warringah, Katherine Deves, is founder of the Save Women’s Sport Australasia group.

She’s had to twice apologise for comments made before her preselection, including describing trans children as “surgically mutilated and sterilised” and comparing her activism to standing up against the Holocaust.