The BBC has apologised for interviewing a transgender athlete who boasted about knocking women out, in a discussion about female-only sports.
Fallon Fox, an American former martial arts fighter, was invited onto BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last month after trans athletes were barred from women’s elite races if they have gone through male puberty.
The new policy by Fina, the swimming world governing body, will also aim to establish an “open” category for swimmers with birth sex different from their gender identity.
But the BBC came under fire for failing to inform listeners that Ms Fox, 46, had boasted of violence against Terfs – a slur which stands for trans exclusionary radical feminist – in a trans row on Twitter in 2020.
She had tweeted: “For the record, I knocked two out. One woman’s skull was fractured, the other not. And just so you know, I enjoyed it. See, I love smacking up TEFS (sic) in the cage who talk transphobic nonsense. It’s bliss!”
Ms Fox, now retired, became the first openly trans mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter in 2013 having been born male, which sparked debate at the time about whether she had an unfair advantage.
The Radio 4 interview prompted a backlash from campaigners for protecting women’s sport categories for athletes born as female, not men who identify as women.
The fighter appeared on the show alongside Karen Pickering, an ex-GB swimmer.
