🔗 Share this article

A British athlete crowned the world's strongest woman claims she was robbed of her victory celebration after it emerged the original champion was a transgender woman who was ineligible to compete.

Andrea Thompson was granted the championship retrospectively after US competitor Jammie Booker was removed from competition.

The champion explained to sports media the event, held in Arlington, Texas, was overshadowed by somebody who wasn't eligible to participate.

"I felt extremely frustrated and angry with her actions," she stated. "She was untruthful and was quite deceptive, and deprived a lot of things from a lot of women.

"The lady that finished 11th didn't get the opportunity to do the final day... to achieve the top 10 status in the world."

Event coordinators, the competition body, said "competitors could only compete in the category for their birth sex registered at birth", and that they had disqualified the athlete in question "who is biologically male."

Event Background

Records indicate the disqualified athlete participated in at least several additional strongwoman events this year - taking first place at the Rainier Classic in summer and finishing second at the continental championship in July.

Sports media could not reach Booker and the organization said "an attempt had been made to contact the competitor... but a reply had not been obtained."

Thompson, 43, eventually became the global female strength champion for the second time, having previously won the title in two thousand eighteen.

But it was only following this year's competition finished that she learned her opponent had been not qualified to participate.

"There existed nothing at all during the competition - no-one had any reason to suspect any issues," said the mother of two from East Anglia.

"It happened about several hours after that the first rumours started going round, and then the officials contacted me.

"It represents a significant achievement that's been overshadowed by some dishonesty."

Competition Particulars

Power competitions have no single regulatory authority, instead, private organizations run a range of competitions.

The Global Female Strength title is presented at the Official Strongman Games, organized by a UK-registered organization.

Over four hundred competitors from nearly 40 countries took part in this season's competition, which organisers characterize as "among the pinnacles of the power sports community."

The Competition included contests across multiple sex, body mass and age classifications.

Thompson and Booker were in the Female Open division and participated in six events over three days, including the overhead press, frame carrying and progressive deadlift.

Regulations and Eligibility

A statement from event officials stated: "Athletes are placed to men's or female divisions based on whether they are registered as man or female at birth.

"It appears that an athlete who is biologically male and who currently self-identifies as a woman competed in the Women's Open division... organizers were not informed of this fact prior to the event."

In twenty twenty-three, Texas enacted a law prohibiting "biological men from competing against female athletes", although this only applies to higher education sport in the state.

The champion believes strongwoman competitions may introduce sex screening in the future.

"I suppose it's going to have to proceed along that path... but our discipline is still relatively recent. There's insufficient money in it to have these things in place. We rely on the integrity of the competitors."

Wider Athletic Landscape

In recent years, a increasing quantity of athletic organizations have prohibited competitors who have experienced male puberty from competing in top-level women's events, amid concerns over fairness and safety, including international swimming and athletics organizations.

In May, major UK sports bodies were among a group of associations to implement similar policies, after the Britain's highest court's ruling that the official classification of a female is based on birth sex.

The decisions have been opposed by trans rights activists, who contend they could violate human rights and insist inclusion should be emphasized.

Both global track and field and boxing bodies introduced chromosomal testing this season, asserting it is needed to protect the integrity of female sports.

An official from the global track organization has claimed that between 50 and 60 athletes who experienced puberty as males have been top placers in the women's division in international and regional track and field championships since the year two thousand.