Transgender runner Glenique Frank has offered to give back her London Marathon finisher’s medal following backlash to the 54-year-old’s participation in the female category.
Frank finished the annual event in a time of 4hr 11min 28sec, placing 6,160th in the all-female class.
This positioned her ahead of around 14,000 female competitors.
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The result triggered outrage that the personal trainer had been allowed to participate in the 50-54 female age bracket despite not having had gender reassignment surgery.
“If they want me to give my medal back, I’ll say, ‘OK, fine. No problem,'” Frank told The New York Post.
“If they really think I’ve stolen the place [of a female runner], I don’t mind giving the medal back because I’ll run again next year for charity.
“But I don’t want to apologise because I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Frank added that her only wrongdoing was “upsetting” her “haters” – those with a negative attitude towards transgender participants.
“They’re angry because they’re saying that one of 14,000 women behind me could have had my place. Really? I did [the race in] 4 hours 11 minutes. There are lots of women that beat me,” she said.
“I get it … I’m not a woman, I don’t have a womb.
“But I didn’t compete as an elite, so I didn’t steal any money.”
The London Marathon was held in line with World Athletics’ new stance on transgender women’s participation in international competitions.
Under the new rules, athletes who have transitioned from male to female – having gone through male puberty – are no longer allowed to contest female world ranking competitions as of March 31.
However, those who had already signed up for races before the changeover were permitted to compete in their elected category regardless of their biological sex.
Frank’s participation drew criticism from former Olympic marathon runner Mara Yamauchi who hit out at organisers for allowing Frank to compete in the female category.
“Males in the [female] category is UNFAIR for females,” Yamauchi tweeted.
Frank admitted to recently having competed in the Tokyo and New York marathons as a male – having been forced to register under the name and gender on her passport.
However, London was the first of her 17 marathons where she was able to select her own name and gender when registering.
“When I entered the London Marathon, it says, ‘female,’ ‘male’ or ‘other’ [on the registration form],” Frank said.
“I ticked ‘female’ because I see myself as female.
“I’ve known since I was five that I was in the wrong body.”
Explaining that she was preparing for “top and bottom surgery” next year, Frank said that transitioning presented its own disadvantage when running.
“I’m not at an advantage as I have very low testosterone level due to hormone replacement therapy,” she wrote in reply to Yamauchi.
Frank has plans to compete in both the Berlin and Chicago Marathons later this year before running in Boston in April 2024. She has already entered as a male with the name on her passport, as is required for each race.
Despite the reaction to the event, Frank also intends to run the London Marathon next year.
“I’m going to enter under ‘other’ or ‘male,’ just to keep everybody happy,” she said.
“And I’ll still do it in four hours and I won’t steal anybody’s money.”
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