AMELIA STRICKLER: Trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney makes a total mockery of female athletes like me 

It’s so offensive that it reminds me of a routine of a 1970s chauvinistic male comedian. Dylan Mulvaney, a TikTok influencer and artist, is hopping around wearing Nike leggings and a sports bra. Their exaggerated movements strike me as a parody of a woman’s workout routine.

Mulvaney, a biological man who first openly identified as “transgender” in March last year, has been signed by the world’s largest sports company to promote women’s clothing. I am a GB shot putter who has won the British title twice and competed in the Commonwealth Games. I am a European finalist and World Cup finalist.

I know how many years of training it takes, often at great personal cost, to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

And I know what it’s like to be a woman.

I am a British shot putter who has won the British title twice and competed in the Commonwealth Games (Photo: Amelia Strickler competing in the World Athletics Indoor Championships)

In the video ad, Mulvaney appears to be frankly laughing in the face of female athletes like me – and any other woman or girl who wants to improve herself physically.

I’ve been a shot putter since I was ten. Life in professional athletics requires perseverance and determination. It’s not about dancing around, grinning silly.

It means getting up at the crack of dawn to work out, continuing when every muscle in your body is screaming at you to stop, forgoing time with friends and family, and being utterly determined. And because so few female athletes get sponsorship from giants like Nike, we often have to train and compete around other paid work.

For years I worked two jobs to support my shot put career. Recently I found a private sponsor through my athletics club Thames Valley Harriers, which allows me to continue competing.

But most female athletes don’t have that advantage. Women get 1 percent of all sports sponsorship money — and yet to see Nike willing to pay out however many thousands it is to Mulvaney — who, remember, hasn’t fully “switched” to female yet — is utterly demoralizing .

Nike likes to hammer home how it champions women: Last year it announced an “Athletes Think Tank” to “serve today’s female athletes,” while a 2021 campaign praised moms for being “the toughest athletes.”

All well and good, but contrast these warm words with Nike’s actions against the female athletes it actually sponsored. Women like Olympic runner Alysia Montano were subject to “performance-related discounts” — equivalent to a 70 percent pay cut — if they couldn’t race because they were pregnant or had just given birth. In other words, punished for being a woman.

Following public outcry, Nike revised its policy of giving women 18 months off around pregnancy, but this latest publicity stunt shows just how little the company really cares about women in sports.

In the video ad, Mulvaney appears to be frankly laughing at female athletes

Women like Olympic runner Alysia Montano were subject to a 70 percent pay cut when they couldn’t race because they were pregnant or had just given birth

It would be better to invest some of the money in attention-seeking influencers like Mulvaney to develop better sportswear for organic women.

In nearly a decade of playing at the highest level, I haven’t found a decent sports bra: I have to wear two at once.

Modeling a bra on someone with a male torso is an insult to those of us with female bodies.

On the court yesterday, many fellow female athletes were deeply upset by Nike’s apparent disregard for our sport. As someone said – and I agree – “I’m glad Nike isn’t my sponsor.”

Women are still fighting for true equality in sport – we have made progress, but there is still a long way to go. We don’t need a big brand like Nike to take it down with crass campaigns. I agree with Sharron Davies: Women should boycott Nike. If they refuse to support women in sports, why should we support them?