Men's Division in That Competition, Now Women's Division... Controversy Over Transgender Marathoner

Biological Male According to New York, Identity Female According to London
Sports Community Criticizes as "Wrong and Unfair"

Controversy has arisen over a transgender athlete participating in the women's division of a marathon race in London, UK.

According to the British Telegraph on the 24th (local time), transgender Glenik Frank competed in the women's 50-54 age group race at the London Marathon held the previous day.

Frank is biologically male but identifies as female. During the race, Frank gave an unreserved interview to the BBC, making remarks such as "girl power" and "I will become a grandmother."

A participant in the London Marathon took part in the event wearing a unique costume. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article.
Photo by Reuters Yonhap News

Frank finished with a time of 4 hours 11 minutes and 28 seconds, placing 6,160th out of 20,123 runners. The issue is that just a few months ago, Frank competed in the men's division.

An avid marathon runner, Frank participated in the New York Marathon men's division last November under the name "Glen," finishing 14,096th out of 26,539 runners.

Frank was able to run in the women's division at the London Marathon due to a loophole in the relevant regulations. The UK Athletics Association announced on the 31st of last month that transgender athletes would be completely banned from all official competitions. However, athletes who had already competed in a specific event were exceptionally allowed to continue competing in the same category.

Accordingly, Frank participated in this year's London Marathon and achieved a ranking higher than that of six months ago. This has drawn some unfavorable views within the sports community.

In particular, Mara Yamauchi, who competed in the women's marathon at the Beijing Olympics, strongly criticized Frank's participation in the London Marathon.

Yamauchi pointed out that nearly 14,000 women lost their rankings because of Frank at the London Marathon, stating, "This is wrong and unfair."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.