Shot putter Amelia Strickler stands up for women's sports

"The younger me probably would not have continued in sports if I'd had to compete against biological males"

Two-time British champion shot putter Amelia Strickler has been one of the most visible voices for women’s sports, and one of the few currently competing high level athletes to speak out.  Born and raised near Cleveland, Ohio, she started competing in youth sports and eventually earned a D1 scholarship to Miami University. In 2017, Strickler, her mom—a British citizen—and her sister moved to the UK to be closer to family. She chose to compete at the pro level for Great Britain. She was motivated to speak out in January of this year when World Athletics (track & field’s governing organization) hinted that their updated transgender policy would simply be more of the same—stricter testosterone limits for trans-identified males. Strickler spoke to the press and used her social media to voice her feelings that women are “screwed” if men are allowed to compete with women, regardless of their testosterone levels. Surprisingly, in March, World Athletics announced that trans women (trans-identified males) who had gone through puberty would not be eligible to compete in the female category. 

“People said, ‘Oh well done, you played such a big part in this,’” Strickler laughed. “They [World Athletics] did what they wanted to do. Maybe they saw me do the press, but no one talked to me about it.”

Though international track & field, swimming and rugby have established rules protecting women’s sports, Strickler continues to speak up about the need for female-only sports.

She spoke to me by phone from her home in the UK.

When you heard about World Athletics’ “preferred option” in January, you started speaking out publicly about women’s only sports. Why?

It’s important to me and so many women. It’s been so frustrating to watch in the news and even in person at Commonwealths. I felt it needed to be said, and I didn’t really care what it meant for me, because I just knew it was right. I definitely consider myself a feminist, and am always going to side with women. I also feel common sense should win this. Women are not men with a lower testosterone. We’re women. I don't have a kit deal or a sponsor that I have to worry about, and it seemed like no one else wanted to talk about it. The Telegraph asked if I’d give an opinion and I said, Yeah, sure. 

Was this a hard decision? Were you worried about backlash?

After that first interview in January I thought I’d get slayed and I’d crack up, but it’s been really nice. Genuinely surprising. There’s been very little backlash. Obviously, some from the trans community calling me names online, but 99% of the comments have been supportive. A lot from parents saying, Thank you for my daughter so she’ll have equal opportunities. That makes me think of the younger me who probably would not have continued in sports if I’d had to compete against biological males.

You mention all the comments from people supporting women’s-only sports, but I know here in the U.S., that’s not what comes through in the media.

Fox News is one of the few outlets that will run stories or give a voice to people like you. So even though a fair number of people agree that trans-identified males should not compete in women’s sports, you wouldn’t get that impression from a lot of the media.

Yeah, the BBC shut off comments that were supportive of me. It seems silly to be censoring comments. It’s frustrating that the BBC doesn't seem to want to stand up for women. I went on Tucker Carlson’s show. I don’t agree with basically anything he says, but I wanted to stand up for women in the U.S. and Fox is the only one covering it.

Few other top level athletes were publicly speaking out like you were. Why is that?

Yeah, everyone I’ve spoken to in athletics, all the British stars, agree with me but no one wants to be public about it for sponsors’ sake. It’s their livelihood.

Some people, and this is usually people with no skin in the game, say female athletes should boycott, just refuse to compete against trans-identified males. Do you think this is an effective tool of protest?

This one’s hard for me. I know how much I love competing, and World Athletics doesn’t allow it so I personally don’t have to worry about it. But I see what’s going on in the rest of the world, in other sports, and I think a boycott would send a strong message if you get enough people to participate. But you’d have to get every single woman to not go to the start line, and you know, there are only so many opportunities to compete and win prize money. In the NCAA, scholarships are on the line. Female athletes have been threatened if they protest. It’s really hard to see. I don’t know if I would have stuck with sports if I’d had to deal with that.

I think UK Athletics established a policy like World Athletics’ that extends down to the club level, so even youth athletics will be separated by sex.  Do you think this is necessary?

Actually I was just on the news here talking about how important the women’s category is at all levels. This was after a biological man ran in the London Marathon as a woman, and people were saying, Oh it’s just for charity. It doesn’t matter because he wasn’t winning anything, but he displaced about 14,000 women. It matters to them. And for youth, what is the incentive to continue in sport if you're going to be beat by a boy? I was better than most of the other girls, but not even close to the boys. Young girls at the club level on that first day have to know that they deserve fairness.  What about all those women and girls feeling pushed aside for a few biological males?  It’s not always about winning, but if you’re constantly second place, it affects your mental health. 

I heard that World Athletics finally consulted female athletes, and that’s how they made the decision to protect women’s sports. Did they talk with you?

No one contacted me. Not World Athletics, not British Athletics. Absolutely no one. I’ve not heard anyone say they were consulted by World Athletics.

Well, however that decision came about, I notice you’ve continued to speak out about women’s sports, all sports, not just track & field. Why?

It’s so important to women’s sport and its future. I hope to remain in sport for the rest of my life in some capacity and it’s important to have boundaries set, now and for the future. It’s frustrating women's sport has come so far only to be set back yet again by men and their decisions regarding it. What I mean is, many men run women’s sports organizations and they’re making these decisions to include biological males with little regard for female athletes. 

I always have to ask this of everyone I talk with – why do you think national and international sports organizations, even the gigantic Olympic brand, suddenly, about 8 years ago decided that it was very important to wedge trans-identified males into female sports? 

I personally think we saw everyone trying to be one step ahead, so they ended up being overly inclusive. I believe sports are for everyone, in their sex category, but I think sports organizations didn’t fully understand what they were doing to biological women in sports. It was frustrating to watch my good friend Emily Campbell compete in 2018 in the Commonwealth Games against a biological male from New Zealand [Laurel Hubbard].  I don’t think her sports organization really thought that would be the outcome of their keenness to be inclusive, to look progressive. Everyone is welcome here—that’s fine, in the proper biological category. But biological males have stepped in to take prize money and sponsorships, and women have been overlooked again.