When I was an Olympic rower I had to take a swab test to prove I was a woman, ... trends now

When I was an Olympic rower I had to take a swab test to prove I was a woman, ... trends now
When I was an Olympic rower I had to take a swab test to prove I was a woman, ... trends now

When I was an Olympic rower I had to take a swab test to prove I was a woman, ... trends now

When I was part of the British international rowing squad in the 1980s and 1990s, I had to submit to a test before World Championship competitions — to confirm I wasn't a man.

The check wasn't intrusive or humiliating. An official simply rubbed a cotton bud around the inside of my mouth — a procedure known as a 'cheek buccal swab' — and sent it away for analysis.

At the time, rumours were rife that the Soviet and Eastern Bloc trainers would do anything to win; not only forcing their female athletes to take testosterone and other hormones or drugs, but actually inveigling men into their women's squads.

As a result, the sport's governing body were keen to detect any signs of male chromosomes in female athletes.

I didn't think anything of it. It was just part of the price that all athletes paid to exclude cheats from sport.

Trans woman Sarah Gibson (pictured), who was biologically male, participated in the 2015 Cambridge University women's reserve crew during the annual Boat Race it was revealed earlier this week

Trans woman Sarah Gibson (pictured), who was biologically male, participated in the 2015 Cambridge University women's reserve crew during the annual Boat Race it was revealed earlier this week 

Sarah (circled) rowed on the River Thames for Cambridge University Women's Boat Club in 2015

Sarah (circled) rowed on the River Thames for Cambridge University Women's Boat Club in 2015

So I was staggered to read in the Mail last week that in 2015 one of the rowers in a women's team competing in the classic Oxford and Cambridge varsity Boat Race was biologically male.

That year was a historic one because 2015 was the first time the women's teams had raced over the full 4.2 mile stretch of the Thames that the men had rowed for more than 150 years.

Up to then, women had competed over a mile-and-a-quarter on the Thames at Henley, a decision probably influenced by organisers who held such old-fashioned attitudes that they believed over-exertion might impair female competitors' ability to bear children.

By then, Sarah Gibson — the trans woman who rowed in Cambridge's team eight years ago — was already a prominent LGBT+ campaigner.

Two years earlier, she had been part of a campaign that forced colleges to adopt a 'gender-neutral' clothing policy for graduation ceremonies, allowing students to wear suits or dresses as they pleased.

And, as the transgender representative of the university's student union LGBT+ society, she had also published a report into trans and intersex sports provision at Cambridge.

Given her profile, it's inconceivable that anyone in the squad didn't know she had been through male puberty.

But the rules said the organisers and the other rowers could not contest Gibson's self-asserted status as a woman.

Olympian Tish Reid (pictured) was part of the British international rowing squad in the 1980s and 1990s

Olympian Tish Reid (pictured) was part of the British international rowing squad in the 1980s and 1990s

She said she was female: therefore, she was. End of discussion. I've spoken to ex-rowers about the race that year, and we concluded they had no choice but to include Gibson in the squad. In their place, I'm not sure I would have been able to act differently.

Trans activists are dismissing this story, claiming it's unimportant and that Gibson's gender was irrelevant. She was not in the first team, known as the Blue Boat, but in the reserves, rowing in the so-called 'Blondie' boat. And in any case, Oxford won.

This proves, says the trans campaigners, that trans athletes have no unfair advantages, and any women who object are simply transphobic.

Well, I do object, very strongly. That doesn't make me transphobic: it makes me a passionate defender of women's sport.

In rowing, more than almost any other major sport, male bodies have a colossal advantage. Pulling an oar is all about leverage, and

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