BBC gives women's sports award to player who failed sex eligibility test, inciting J.K. Rowling's wrath
Famed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling delivered one of her typical sports takes Tuesday.
The BBC awarded its annual Women's Footballer of The Year award to Zambian player Barbra Banda. Banda withdrew from the Zambian squad for the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco after failing to meet sex eligibility requirements in 2022, the BBC previously reported.
Banda was allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics and has become the second-leading scorer in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) this season, playing for the Orlando Pride.
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Banda received the most votes from BBC readers after being shortlisted by a panel of what the BBC said were "experts involved in football," including coaches, players and non-BBC journalists.
Rowling spoke out in a post on X.
"Presumably the BBC decided this was more time efficient than going door to door to spit directly in women's faces," Rowling wrote.
Rowling has been one of the most vocal opponents of transgender rights and inclusion, especially in her home country of England.
Transgender participation in women's sports has become an internationally debated issue, and it became one of the most-discussed issues of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
In June, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to weigh in on whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be permitted to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity instead of their biological sex.
Sixty-five percent answered that it should either never be or rarely allowed. When those polled were asked specifically about adult transgender female athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% opposed it.
The United Nations says nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of the podium because they were beaten out by trans athletes.
The findings were compiled by Reem Alsalem, the UN's Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, titled "Violence against women and girls in sports."
The report said more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information as of March 30.
"The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males," the report said.
Banda was among the controversial cases involving athletes who previously failed sex eligibility tests at the Paris Olympics. Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan each won gold medals in their respective competitions and were allowed to compete despite failing sex eligibility tests at previous international events.
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