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A British athlete crowned the world's strongest woman claims she was deprived of her winning moment after it was revealed the initial winner was a trans female who was ineligible to compete.

Andrea Thompson was awarded the championship retrospectively after US competitor Jammie Booker was removed from competition.

The champion told athletic press the event, held in the Texas city of Arlington, was overshadowed by an individual who shouldn't have been there.

"I was very frustrated and upset with her actions," she stated. "She was untruthful and was quite deceptive, and deprived a lot of things from a lot of women.

"The lady that finished 11th didn't get the opportunity to do the final day... to achieve the elite ranking in the world."

Event coordinators, the competition body, said "participants could only compete in the division for their biological sex recorded at birth", and that they had disqualified the competitor in question "who is male by birth."

Event Details

Documentation show Booker participated in at least several additional female strength competitions this season - winning the Washington competition in June and finishing second at North America's Strongest Woman in mid-summer.

Sports media could not contact Booker and the organization confirmed "an attempt had been made to contact the athlete... but a response had not been received."

Thompson, forty-three, eventually became the world's strongest woman for the second occasion, having earlier won the title in 2018.

But it was only after this year's competition concluded that she discovered her opponent had been not qualified to compete.

"There existed no indication at all during the competition - nobody had any cause to question any issues," said the mother of two from East Anglia.

"It was about six hours after that the first rumours started going round, and then the organisers notified me.

"It represents a significant accomplishment that's been overshadowed by some deception."

Event Details

Strength contests have no single governing body, rather, independent groups organize a range of events.

The World's Strongest Woman title is awarded at the Official Strongman Games, organized by a UK-registered company.

More than four hundred athletes from nearly 40 countries participated in this year's competition, which coordinators describe as "among the pinnacles of the strength world."

The Games featured events across various sex, weight and age categories.

The British athlete and Booker were in the Women's Open category and competed in half-dozen events over three days, including the overhead press, frame carrying and deadlift ladder.

Rules and Qualifications

An announcement from event officials said: "Athletes are assigned to male or women's categories based on whether they are recorded as male or female at birth.

"It appears that an competitor who is male by birth and who currently self-identifies as a woman participated in the Female Open category... officials were not informed of this fact ahead of the event."

In 2023, Texas enacted a regulation banning "biological men from competing against female athletes", although this is limited to college and university athletics in the region.

The champion thinks female strength competitions may implement gender verification in the future.

"I guess it's going to have to proceed along that route... but our sport is still relatively recent. There's not enough funding in it to have these things in operation. We depend on the honesty of the competitors."

Broader Athletic Landscape

In recent years, a increasing number of sports federations have prohibited competitors who have experienced puberty as males from competing in elite women's events, amid concerns over fairness and safety, including international swimming and track and field organizations.

In May, major British sports bodies were among a group of associations to implement similar policies, after the UK Supreme Court's decision that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex.

The moves have been challenged by trans rights campaigners, who argue they could violate human rights and insist participation should be emphasized.

Both global track and field and boxing bodies implemented chromosomal testing this season, asserting it is necessary to protect the fairness of women's competition.

A representative from international athletics has stated that between fifty to sixty athletes who experienced male puberty have been top placers in the female category in global and continental track and field competitions since the year two thousand.