‘Biological males are always going to be faster and stronger’: Oympian Emily Seebohm enters transgender debate

Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm joins fellow swimmer Emma McKeon by wading into the debate on transgender athletes competing in elite sport.

Silver medalist Emily Seebohm poses on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women's 200m Backstroke Final at Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Tokyo.

Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm has now joined the debate on transgender athletes competing in elite sport saying opponents born biologically male will always be faster and stronger.

The 29-year-old swimming champion said the conversation about whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sport “needs to be started” but must be fair and inclusive.

“Obviously, we want everyone to be involved,” she told Channel 9’s Today. “I love my sport and I want to share it with everyone. But we also need to think of fairness too and what’s fair for the athletes and how they prepare and perform. We need to have that same level playing field just like we do with drugs in sport.

“Biological males are always going to be faster and stronger than I will ever be in my life and I want to compete on that same level playing field.”

"We need to have that same level playing field just like we do with drugs in sport."@emcbomb weighs in on the transgender athlete debate, speaking from her perspective as an Olympic swimmer. #9Todaypic.twitter.com/Z4wkpyr8MT

— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) April 20, 2022

Seebohm said athletes want to compete on a level playing field. “We want to be able to swim and the races be neck-and-neck, because we are even,” she said. “We don‘t want people winning by ten/eight seconds. If I was swimming in a male event, I wouldn’t even place.”

Her comments echo those of Australia’s most successful Olympian, swimmer Emma McKeon, who said it is “just not fair” to expect female swimmers to compete against opponents who are born biologically male.

McKeon, who won seven medals including four gold in Tokyo last year, said while sport should be inclusive, she would not want to compete against transgender athletes.

The nation’s most decorated Olympian was joined by swimming great Tracey Wickham on Wednesday in expressing concerns about fairness in women’s sport, with Wickham saying there should be separate events for transgender athletes.

PM backs swimmer comments

Campaigning in Brisbane, Scott Morrison says it’s “common sense” that people should play sport against those of the same biological gender, arguing that his position was one that most “Australians would understand”.

The Prime Minister said that he agreed with McKeon, but said the issue needed to be dealt with sensitively and respectfully.

“Sports will make the decisions but my preference is for girls to play girls, for women to play women, boys to play boys, men to play men,” Mr Morrison said. “I don’t think this is a terribly remarkable statement. I think it’s common sense.

Mr Morrison also denied suggestions that he had been restricting Warringah Liberal candidate Katherine Deves from speaking to the media following comments she made about transgender women and LGBTQ issues.

“She is campaigning,” Mr Morrison said. “I contacted her today to encourage her.

“Katherine Deves is passionate about the issue of women and girls in sport.”

McKeon made the comments at a Griffith University forum, A Better Future For All series of question-and-answer events, on Tuesday night, hosted by veteran journalist Kerry O’Brien.

McKeon, who will compete at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in late July, said she did not expect she would be racing against a transgender athlete but it was an issue that the sport had to deal with.

“I’m not worried about it. I don’t think that 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 medallist Kaylee McKeown, Chelsea Hodges Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell pose on the podium at the Olympic Games last year. Picture: Getty Images

She said she would not want to race against a transgender athlete. “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 the fact that sports will, (and) swimming, have to deal with it. Individual sports are going to have to work out how to handle it.”

Swimming Australia officials have backed McKeon’s calls for a clear ruling from world swimming authorities on the trans athlete debate.

Swimming Australia president Tracy Stockwell said on Wednesday local officials were bracing for their first test case on women competing with trans women.

“I don’t know that we would have had any instances yet but it’s only a matter of time,” Stockwell said. “I think we’ve got to be prepared for that.”

Stockwell wants the sport’s world governing body FINA and major powers to reach a formal agreement on the rules for transgender participation in swimming, with the issue set to blow up at the next world championships in July.

The debate about whether transgender women should be banned from elite sport has intensified during the federal election campaign after controversial comments from Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Warringah Katherine Deves resurfaced.

One of the Scott Morrison’s nine “captain’s picks”, Ms Deves has been forced to issue apologies over comments she made before her preselection, including describing transgender children as “surgically mutilated and sterilised”.

Ms Deves also likened her lobbying to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s sport to standing up against the Holocaust.

Speaking in Adelaide, the Prime Minister said Ms Deves “needs to be more sensitive on those issues”, adding: “I think in a country like this, we’ve got to learn to disagree better.”

Wickham, who set world records for both the 800m and 400m freestyle in 1978, said she had “nothing against transgender people, I am just against them competing in sport because I do not think it fair.

“I mean if they want to play world champion chess, go for it, but anything physical, no.”

Wickham believes there should be a separate event where transgender athletes can compete against one another.

“If you are born with a penis, and you go through puberty as a male, you are going to be stronger, it is as simple as that.”

‘I personally wouldn’t want to be racing against someone who is biologically a male’ says McKeon. Picture: Nigel Hamlett

Additional reporting: Julian Linden / NCA Newswire