By Laurentius Murenga
Sports scientists Ross Tucker and Jonna Harper ( transgender herself) shared opposing sides on The Sports Desk podcast about transgender women in female sports categories as BBC interviewed the two scientists .
The scientists had different opinions when asked whether transgender women have an unfair advantage over female athletes . Harper said that the competition is always fair but certain factors do affect the competition.
“Completions are not necessarily unfair .., yes it is true that competition can often come to a small margin but, just like in any other competition small factors that come into the overall performance and just saying , somebody’s advantage in one factor does not necessarily determine the outcome,” Harper adds.
Tucker had opposite views using male superiority over females to get her point across claiming that it does have an advantage “When boys reach the age of 13 and 14 things start to change physically living behind a significant portion of what gives males sporting advantage over females,” said Tucker.
In response to whether transgender women be excluded in taking part in female sports, Tucker pointed out that “The point to women’s category is to exclude male advantage which comes as a result of testosterone until it can be shown that the advantage does not persist or exist in trans women , then I will say there’s no basis to allow trans women in,”
Harper’s response to the question was that little information has been discovered scientifically and used the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to explain her point “The science is in infancy.. there are some including the IOC that have said that until we know more, we should not restrict trans athletes,”