Olympic silver medallist Sharron Davies has confirmed she'll remain part of the BBC 's programming despite critics calling for the ex- swimming star to be sacked.
Davies, 59, has attracted scrutiny and said she's been the subject of death threats after encouraging organisations to ban transgender athletes from women's competitions. FINA —the world's governing body for water sports—recently ruled transgender athletes may not compete in women's events if they've experienced any part of male puberty.
Many fans raised umbrage with the decision, while Davies encouraged other sports to follow suit by implementing their own bans. But despite push-back over those views, she's since confirmed she'll be back in her role as poolside reporter when the Commonwealth Games start in Birmingham on July 28.
"The trans activists are so vile that they go after you like you cannot believe if you don't do everything they tell you to do," Davies told the Daily Mail. "They were phoning my employers and charities I was working for and they made my life hell.
"But BBC Sport have been very good. I will be working for them at the Commonwealth Games and European Championships. I am very much looking forward to being on the side of the pool."
Swimming became an epicentre for the debate surrounding trans participation in sport following the success of collegiate athlete Lia Thomas. University of Pennsylvania star Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to clinch an NCAA Division I title when she won the women's 500-yard freestyle in March.
Thomas—who previously competed as a man earlier in university—would no longer be allowed to compete in that event following FINA's rule change. The transgender star had spoken about her desire to challenge for a place on the Paris 2024 Olympics team but has seen those hopes dashed.
FINA has announced plans to create an 'open' category that will facilitate those athletes who identify with a gender other than their birth sex. Olympic gold medal-winner Tom Daley recently lambasted the decision and said he was "left furious" by the recent changes.
Davies—who won silver in the 400-metre medley at the 1980 Moscow Olympics—went on to say she had hardly worked in recent years "because the trans activists made [her] life hell."
