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Speaker 1: Ever do for c Ellen. Now, look, it may not

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Speaker 1: altogether surprise you today to hear that the International Olympic

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Speaker 1: Committee has banned transgender women from competing in female events,

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Speaker 1: because this was so obviously going to happen once Kirsty

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Speaker 1: Coventry was elected the president of the IOC. She was

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Speaker 1: clearly going to do it, given that she had campaigned

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Speaker 1: on doing this. But you may be surprised to realize

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Speaker 1: what an enormous u turn this actually is. I had

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Speaker 1: to go back and have a look at it at

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Speaker 1: it to actually believe it. Five years ago, the IOC

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Speaker 1: publicly praised Laurel Hubbard for having quote courage and tenacity

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Speaker 1: as the first transgender athlete to compete at the Olympics,

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Speaker 1: and they said everyone agrees that trans women are women.

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Speaker 1: So to go from that to now banning Laurel Hubbard

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Speaker 1: from ever being able to compete in a female category

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Speaker 1: again in the space of five short years, it's actually,

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Speaker 1: when you think about it, quite an extraordinary turnaround. Now,

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Speaker 1: obviously what's happened as that public opinion has shifted. Five

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Speaker 1: years ago was before the CAST report was delivered in

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Speaker 1: the UK on the dangers of puberty blockers. And kids.

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Speaker 1: Five years ago was before the bud light controversy. Five

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Speaker 1: years ago was before the Algerian boxer won gold despite

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Speaker 1: questions of whether she actually was female. Five years ago,

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Speaker 1: the prevailing opinion was that inclusion of transgender athletes matter

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Speaker 1: a lot more, and discussing transgender related subjects was pretty taboo. Today,

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Speaker 1: the prevailing opinion appears to be more about fairness to women,

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Speaker 1: and we are openly debating transgender related subjects. Clearly, the IOC,

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Speaker 1: like any global sporting body, is sensitive to politics. I mean,

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Speaker 1: they may say sport is paramount, and we may like

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Speaker 1: to believe that sport's the only thing that they care about,

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Speaker 1: and maybe sports still is the most important thing for them,

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Speaker 1: But they are not deaf to public opinion. They would

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Speaker 1: have to be stupid to be. Now, how you judge

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Speaker 1: the IOC for this is up to you. Really, you

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Speaker 1: could see them as fickle blowing in the wind of

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Speaker 1: public opinion, or you could see them as simply trying

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Speaker 1: to be pragmatic in the times that they live, whatever

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Speaker 1: that is. And today possibly we are somewhere closer, I

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Speaker 1: would say, to a fairer outcome for women. For more

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Speaker 1: from hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to news talks

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Speaker 1: it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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