Joanna Harper is the only transgender person ever to be an adviser to the International Olympic Committee on matters of gender and sport. She’s the author of Sporting Gender: The History, Science, and Stories of Transgender and Intersex Athletes. She is a medical physicist by profession and holds a master’s degree in medical physics. She is a transgender athlete an avid distance runner by choice and the only person in history to publish a peer-reviewed article on the performance of transgender athletes. She’s also currently a PhD candidate at Loughborough university.

We touch on her personal story of transitioning and what drove her passion to dive into the science and ultimately be an adviser to the IOC on the topic.

We have an exchange about the issue governing bodies are facing with regards to the women’s category of sport and try to break it down for the listener and talk about some of the high-level statistics.

We have an exchange about fairness, how fairness has historically been defined and she offers her opinion on how it should be defined.

We touch on some of the interactions and discussions she’s had with some of the high-profile former female athletes that have talked publicly about the issue and whether she thinks some of them have evolved.

Finally, we walk through the new guidelines released by the IOC, what she agrees with and what she disagrees with and discuss the implications for the sport governing bodies.

About Joanna Harper, MS
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joanna-Harper

Joanna Harper’s Book
Sporting Gender: The History, Science, and Stories of Transgender and Intersex Athletes
https://www.amazon.com/Sporting-Gender-Transgender-Intersex-Athletes/dp/1538112965

IOC Framework on Fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations.
https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/News/2021/11/IOC-Framework-Fairness-Inclusion-Non-discrimination-2021.pdf?_ga=2.195521836.1048075235.1637092563-834742310.1637092563

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