Parkrun has removed all gender, course and age data from its website following a row over transfeminine athletes achieving the fastest times in the female categories.
The decision has outraged former British Olympians, with some competitors withdrawing their donations, saying they refuse to fund an organization that ‘hides its statistics’ rather than ‘correcting its gender policies’.
Former British swimmer Sharron Davies slammed Parkrun for being ‘cowardly’, while former marathon star Mara Yamauchi accused the organization of prioritizing men over women and vowed to continue to speak out if men were still competing in the women’s categories.
The free event sees thousands of athletes of different levels taking part in runs through parks and athletics tracks across the UK every Saturday morning.
But the country has been embroiled in accusations that it is unfair to women because of controversial entry rules that allow biological males to identify themselves as women.
Transgender athlete Lauren Jeska, born male, has held both the Aberystwyth age 35-39 record and the outright female record since 2012, with a time of 17.38 minutes
Former running champion Jeska was born Michael, pictured before switching in 2000
Parkrun had Jeska listed as Aberystwyth’s female record holder, as this image shows
Historical records outlining the identities of the fastest male and female athletes to complete each 5km course have already been hidden from view of competitors.
Bosses have emailed local organizers warning that large amounts of data on course records, most first places and age class records will no longer be published.
Ms Davies, the former Olympic swimmer, described Parkrun as ‘cowardly’ and said the organization should instead add course records for trans athletes alongside the existing male and female records.
‘Instead of giving women their fair sporting results from parkrun, they have removed all the records from public view.
‘The vast majority want simple, fair sport for all, based on the biological reality of the bodies we run/race/compete with.
“The feelings of all women should never matter less than the feelings of a few trans-identifying men.”
She added on social media: “Keep the sport fair for both genders!”
Ms Yamauchi, a former British Olympic runner, accused parkrun of ‘prioritizing men who want to participate as ‘women’ over fairness for women’.
She wrote on Twitter: ‘It will be interesting to see how Parkrunners react to the disappearance of all this data. I predict that many men will have had enough.
“If men continue to compete in the (women) category (at least one did last Saturday), I will continue to speak out.”
The decision has already upset parts of the running community.
One regular participant, who said she canceled a regular donation to parkrun in response, wrote on social media: ‘Donated since it started but I can’t fund an organization that instead of correcting its poor gender policies hides the statistics. What poor leadership.’
Parkrun acknowledged in an email to local organizers seen by the Mail that its website was “an important source of information” for participants.
But it also said that “some of the content we share and the way we present it may be off-putting or create opportunities for misunderstandings.”
It added: ‘So in the coming days we will no longer publish data such as attendance records, course records, fastest finishers, most first finishes and age class or category records.
Siân Longthorpe – a transgender woman who is a biological man – completed the Porthcawl Parkrun in a record time of 18 minutes and 53 seconds in the women’s 45-49 age category in May
When registering, parkrun runners will be asked their gender, rather than gender, and can choose ‘prefer not to say’ and ‘another gender identity’ in addition to male/female, as above
A recent report from right-wing think tank Policy Exchange released last month – backed by Olympians Martina Navratilova (left) and Sharron Davies (right) – said Parkun’s government funding should be cut if it fails to protect female runners against transgender rivals
Daley Thompson, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the decathlon, also supported the report
‘The results pages for each event, your personalized results email and your individual profile pages remain unchanged.’
A parkrun spokeswoman said the changes are part of its long-term inclusivity strategy.
She said: ‘We do our best to ensure that the information we share is consistent with our values, and that we continue to find ways to remove barriers to registration and participation in everything we do.
‘What was clear is that there was a disconnect between the performance data displayed so prominently on the site, and our mission to create opportunities for as many people as possible to take part in parkrun events – especially those concerned about activities such as parkrun, but which have the potential to gain enormous amounts.
‘Based on the project group’s conclusions and recommendations, we will no longer publish data such as most first finishes, men under 17 and women under 20, and speed records by age group or category.
“In addition, as part of our ongoing data protection improvements, the search function has been removed.”
‘As we work towards the objectives set out in our five-year strategy, we will continue to take steps to ensure that everyone can enjoy parkrun for what it is: a free community event and a chance to be active, social and outdoors. a non-competitive, inclusive and welcoming environment.”
A graph in the Policy Exchange report which states: ‘shows the steadily increasing number of elite female athletes competing in the Olympic Games’
The report says this table shows the “scale of male advantage within sport” given that “every world record in athletics held by a woman has been beaten by a teenage boy”
It follows a recent bombshell report from right-wing think tank Policy Exchange, which found three female parkrun records were held by runners who were biologically born male.
This includes the women’s 45-49 category at Porthcawl in South Wales, which was set at 20.06 minutes by Deb Roberts in 2008. In May this year,
Siân Longthorpe – a transgender woman who is biologically male – set a new record of 18.53 minutes.
That result gained national attention when Ms. Yamauchi cited it as an example of what she claimed was the exclusion of female athletes and their achievements under the guise of “being inclusive.”
Longthorpe also held the record for females aged 40-44, as well as the outright female record at Parke in Devon, and the female record for ages 40-44 at Torbay Velopark.
In addition, since 2012, male-born transgender Lauren Jeska has held both the Aberystwyth record for ages 35-39 and the absolute record for women, with a time of 17.38 minutes.
The report, backed by sports stars including former world number one tennis star Martina Navratilova, says the event should have its government funding cut if it fails to protect female runners from transgender rivals.
The report also claimed that women could be ‘alienated’ from grassroots sports and highlighted the major physical advantages biological males have over women.
It said Sports England, the government’s non-departmental body for community sport, should tell parkrun to collect participant data by biological sex, rather than gender identity, and update course data to reflect this . It added: “If this is not done within 12 months, taxpayer funding should be withdrawn.”
There are more than 1,000 parkrun events in Britain, with more than 350,000 people participating every week.