Glenique Frank transgender runner defends decision to compete in London marathon in the female category as detractors decision as wrong and unfair.
Define male puberty? A transgender runner has denied claims that they cheated after beating nearly 14,000 other ‘females’ in the female category of the London Marathon — just months after racing in New York as a man.
Sports bra-wearing racer Glenique Frank, 54, — who ran the New York Marathon on Nov. 6 as Glen Frank — went viral after stopping to talk to a BBC reporter covering the UK race Sunday.
The win comes as the trans runner from Northamptonshire apparently taking advantage of a loophole in rules.
At the end of March, UK Athletics applied World Athletics’ rules on the exclusion of transgender women from elite female competitions to make it ‘fair for athletes who have gone through male puberty to be excluded from the female category in athletics.’
However, it allowed those who had already entered races to still compete in categories that were not their biological sex.
‘I haven’t cheated, I’ve not taken someone’s prize money.’
Responding to claims that they had cheated, Frank insisted she had abided by the rules, telling the dailymail, ‘I haven’t cheated, I’ve not taken someone’s prize money.’
Frank who completed the gruelling 26.2-mile run in the 50-54 age bracket, in the time of 4hr 11min 28 seconds defended her decision to run in the marathon in the female category, saying she has ‘served my country because of all the money I’ve raised’ for the charity Whizz-Kidz.
She said: ‘How can they say that I’ve cheated, who have I cheated? I did it in four hours and 11 minutes.’
Frank said she ran in the Tokyo and New York marathons as Glen Frank ‘because my passport is male and I haven’t had surgery’.
She continued: ‘I apologise for entering under the female category because I haven’t had surgery yet.’
Adding, ‘But I wasn’t taking any advantage over another female. I’ve just entered as a general public [participant] and I’m raising money for charity.’
Saying she would not run another race as a female until she had surgery, Frank said: ‘When Glen becomes Glenique and gets female genitalia she will enter as a female.
Girl power?
‘Until then I will not enter again [as female] in competitive races where there is prize money involved.’
Frank a personal trainer said she was ‘almost in tears’ at all the support she received from women around the course.
‘London is the best!’ Frank said of her 17th marathon, which last year included Tokyo and Chicago and will include all of the ‘six majors,’ including Berlin and then Boston.
‘Girl power!’ Frank said of her marathon efforts while flexing her bulging biceps above rainbow-colored armbands.
The runner — whose social media still shows photos of her running earlier races as a balding man — ended the mid-race chat to gush about how her ‘beautiful son’ is expecting a baby.
‘So I’m going to be a gran — Granny G!’ Frank said before running off, draped in a blue, pink and white transgender flag.
Frank ran in the New York Marathon last November as a man called Glen.
The same man
Glenique Frank, a biological male identifying as a woman, ran in the London marathon beating real biological women.
This isn’t t trans rights this is cheating & lying!— Drug test all elected politicians. (@CraiginWales) April 25, 2023
How about their own category?
The celebratory remarks soon became the latest lightning rod for critics opposed to transgender athletes competing against biological women.
‘Males in the [female] category is UNFAIR for females,‘ tweeted two-two Olympic marathoner Mara Yamauchi alongside Frank’s interview.
‘What this effectively says is that women and girls who are not that good at sport don’t deserve fairness, which I think is appalling,’ she said.
Cathy Devine, a former lecturer in sport and physical activity at the University of Cumbria, accused the London Marathon of being ‘enabling.’
‘Zero categories that exclude male performance advantage. Goddess forbid that female runners should have their own category celebrating what women runners can do,’ she tweeted.
Asked about the backlash, Frank replied with three laughing emojis, telling the nypost, ‘Apparently I’ve stirred up the hornets nest.’
