Written evidence submitted by Mara Yamauchi

Game On: Community and school sport: Call for evidence

I am submitting the evidence below in response to the Committee’s call for evidence as part of this inquiry.

Introduction about me: I am a British, female, former elite athlete in distance running. During my elite career, I competed in the women’s marathon in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics and in the 2005 and 2007 World Championships, won a bronze medal in the 2006 Commonwealth Games 10,000m, finished 2nd in the 2009 London Marathon, won the 2008 Osaka Marathon, and from 2006 to 2022, was the UK’s second-fastest female marathon runner ever. I retired in 2013 and since then have been working self-employed as a UK Athletics-qualified coach, commentator, writer and speaker, while running at recreational level. Before I became an elite athlete, I competed in hockey, netball, swimming, tennis, triathlon and running at various times as a child, teenager, student and young adult, at school and community level. I also worked for HM Diplomatic Service including serving at the British Embassy in Tokyo.

My reasons for submitting evidence:

a)      I have participated in sport for nearly 50 years. The vast majority of this was at community level; only a few short years were at elite level. The entirety of my life in sport was and still is only possible because the Female category exists. For example, in 2009 I was ranked 2nd in the world in women’s road running, yet at least 1300 men ran faster than me in that year alone. Males’ physical advantages over females are so massive that females would be absent from sport if the Female category did not exist. For the last few years, regrettably, the Female category has been thrown away in many sports and events, and instead it has been turned into a mixed-sex category by including males in it. This is happening in many sports at community level all over the UK. For examples, please see reports by Fair Play for Women and Policy Exchange.

b)      The main community level event in the UK in my sport, distance running, is parkrun, a free 5km run held every Saturday nationwide (there is also a junior parkrun on Sundays). My submission focuses on parkrun. I would like to be able to join parkrun regularly but I refuse to, because parkrun uses gender self-ID, not sex, to demarcate its categories. This means any and all males are welcome in the Female category in parkrun. Many males have been running in the Female category and continue to do so now (see end for examples), despite there being two extra categories on offer (Another Gender Identity and Prefer Not To Say) in addition to the Male category. As a result, females suffer unfairness because the entire point of the Female category in sport or any physical activity is to exclude males and their male advantage (in running this is 10% at elite level and greater at non-elite level). It also means that females have been robbed of things of value (eg 1st Female finish, outright and age category records, best age grade % score at a particular parkrun and all-time, etc) on a gigantic scale by males in the Female category, going back at least to 2011. I refuse to put myself through the humiliating, demeaning, misogynistic and unfair experience of running against males in the Female category, and knowing that at any parkrun I might go to, a male might turn up in the Female category and rob me of things of value. To my knowledge I have suffered this once already. I occasionally run parkrun to raise awareness of this issue but for the most part I am boycotting it. I know of many other women and some men who are also boycotting parkrun over this issue. I cannot go elsewhere to get fairness in community running events because, despite UK Athletics having banned post-puberty males from the Female category in licensed events on 31 March 2023, many males have competed many times in numerous licensed events since. The NGBs are not enforcing this rule robustly enough, and many rule-breaking males have not been disqualified nor, apparently, suffered any punishment. Several of these males have organised under the slogan “Fuck UK Athletics” and wear this slogan on their clothing in licensed races. Two major event providers have stated that transwomen (ie males) are welcome in the Female category in parts of their licensed events, have refused to disqualify males in their Female category following complaints, and are not complying with UKA’s rule. Having spent a large part of my life in distance running, and having represented GB many times, I resent that it is no longer possible for me to join a community running event in the knowledge that no males will turn up in the Female category and cause me and other females unfairness.

c)      I would like the Committee to take this issue (males in the Female category in parkrun and in community level sport more widely) seriously and to take swift and robust action to compel parkrun to restore fairness for all, by adopting sex at birth categories instead of self-ID. I have engaged with parkrun, Sport England and others about this issue. The most common responses I have heard are “it’s not a race”, “it’s not a sport”, “inclusion” and other excuses. Parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt admitted in an interview with the Independent Newspaper on 1 January 2025 that “…fairness, I’m afraid, is affected…” by parkrun’s prioritisation of “inclusion” – of males in the Female category. In saying this, Sinton-Hewitt a) showed that he is unaware that the Female category is the inclusion measure for females; b) indicated that the inclusion of males in the Female category is more important than fairness for all females; and c) made clear that females just have to accept unfairness because parkrun prioritises males and their demands to be allowed in the Female category. Further, parkrun’s registrations with Companies House (here and here) include references to sport under its ‘Nature of Business’. The assertion that an organised running event (most run, some walk) is not “sport” is nonsense.

I have answered below the Committee’s questions which are relevant to this issue. Below that, I have added further information and background about this issue.

Community sport

1. What is the current quality and availability of facilities for grassroots sport? Parkrun is held every Saturday (junior parkrun on some Sundays) so provision is frequent and nationwide. However, the quality of provision is different for males and females. Males get fairness (for the most part – see below) but females get unfairness. Since males, as a sex class, run much faster than females, as a sex class, males do not suffer unfairness if females run in the Male category. 

What interventions are needed to improve this provision? Parkrun must be compelled to replace their gender self-ID policy with a sex-at-birth policy, and to instruct all males, however they identify, to stay out of the Female category at all times.

2. What sources of funding are available for grassroots sport and are they sufficient? Sport England gave parkrun £3 million in 2018-2021 to, in part, “increase female participation”. Since parkrun do not collect any sex data, they have no way of knowing how many females are doing what. As long as they use gender self-ID instead of sex for registration and as long as they allow males in the Female category, parkrun should not receive any further public money.

How can funds be distributed more effectively and application processes be improved? All applicants for any public money must be compelled to collect sex (not gender self-ID) data. It is in their interests to do this anyway, in case they ever have to defend themselves against sex discrimination claims. Funds should not be distributed to any events, organisations or NGBs which allow males in the Female category. Instead, public money should be distributed to events, organisations and NGBs which have clear sex-at-birth categories and a female-only Female category at all levels.

3. How can volunteers be better supported and what is needed to attract and retain more volunteers to grassroots sport? I have heard anecdotally of many people who previously volunteered at parkrun but have now stopped because of its gender self-ID policy. To encourage these people back and to attract and retain more volunteers, parkrun must adopt a sex-at-birth policy and provide a female-only Female category.

4. How can grassroots sport be made more engaging and accessible to under-represented groups? Women and girls are under-represented in sport. Currently in parkrun, they are expected to put up with unfairness, give up things of value they have earned to males, and provide validation for males who claim to be women. This is, obviously, not an “engaging” offer; quite the opposite. To make parkrun more “engaging”, women and girls should be treated fairly, as men and boys are, and given the opportunity to measure themselves only against others of their own sex. 

School sport

5. What can be done to engage groups with lower participation rates – such as girls…..? Parkrun uses gender self-ID for registration for children as well as adults. This amounts to indoctrinating children into gender identity ideology at a young age. It is incomprehensible that this is still happening in light of the Cass Report. Since the categories on offer are Male, Female, Another Gender Identity and Prefer Not To Say, parkrun are conflating sex (Male and Female) with gender identity, and misleading children into believing that there are three or more sexes. I know of several occasions when a girl has been the first actual female to finish in parkrun but has been relegated to “2nd Female” in the results because a male was “1st Female”. This is a grotesque and appalling experience for any girl and is likely to drive girls away from sport. To engage girls more effectively in sport, parkrun and indeed all sports providers must provide a female-only category. Obviously, it is not schools providing parkrun, but all children in parkrun will be at school, or doing home schooling. If girls at school learn, through parkrun, that males are the top priority and girls are expected to give up things of value they have earned to males, that is an appalling experience and is likely to drive girls away from sport.

6. How should schools and sports organisations work together to deliver better sporting opportunities for children in and outside of school hours? Schools and parkrun should be giving girls the message at all times that they matter, that they deserve fairness as much as boys do, and that they should never accept being treated as second class to men and boys. Instead, girls currently get the opposite message from parkrun’s self-ID policy.

7. What measures are needed to make the pathway from school to community sport easier? All sports organisations everywhere from schools upwards must provide a female-only Female category, with no exceptions.

Governance

9. How can the Government facilitate better coordination across the sport ecosystem to deliver grassroots and school sport? The Secretary of State and her Ministers have made clear that they have left decisions about eligibility for the Female category to individual sports’ NGBs to decide. This is not working and is failing women and girls on a massive scale, particularly at grassroots level. For example, the ECB has made cricket fair and safe for females only at the top two levels; below that, males are welcome in women’s cricket, making it unfair and unsafe for the vast majority of women and girls. In tennis, the LTA has created an arbitrary two-tier system in which females within clubs or venues are at the mercy of their clubs/venues who are free to allow males in the women’s game if they so wish. The Government needs to compel all NGBs to provide a female-only Female category at all levels in all sports, including and especially at community and grassroots levels.

Further information about parkrun

Examples of males in the Female category in parkrun

Male A has finished “1st Female” an extremely large number of times and at one point in 2023 had amassed 11 Female age category records. He has repeatedly competed in licensed races since UKA banned males from the Female category.

Male B ran for nearly five years in the Male category in parkrun, coming 1st Male once. After a short spell in Another Gender Identity or Prefer Not To Say categories, he then joined the Female category. In one year, he amassed nearly 40 “1st Female” finishes. This male has shown that he has the ability and willingness to run in the Male and AGI/PNTS categories, where he does not cause unfairness for anyone. Yet despite this, he now runs in the Female category causing unfairness on a massive scale.

Male C ran for approx. nine years in the Male category. He then had a spell in the AGI/PNTS category. Since joining the Female category, he has amassed six age category records and finished first in his age category numerous times. He has also competed in licensed events in the Female category against UKA rules several times, and competes in the Female category in another running-related sport, where, I understand, he is also breaking the rules.

Male D set one outright Female record and several age category records. The females who should have held the outright record are/were international level athletes. This male stated in 2020 that one of these females had complained about the loss of her record. Despite this, he kept these records for nearly four years, before giving them up. This male also stated publicly in Nov 2023, seven months after UKA banned post-puberty males from the Female category, that he was writing to Race Directors asking to be allowed to race “as a woman”.

There are more examples. The common theme amongst these males is their disregard for female boundaries and fairness for females.

Males suffering unfairness

The vast majority of the unfairness caused by males in the Female category in parkrun is suffered by females. However, there is one way in which males also suffer – the age grade % rankings. Parkrun gives all runners a % score which compares their time to the 5km world records for their sex and age (parkrun calls this “gender” but world records only exist by sex, not by “gender”). Since male world records are much faster than female world records for all age bands, if a male runs in the Female category, he gets a massively inflated age grade % score compared to a male of exactly the same age who runs exactly the same time in the Male category. Page 43 of the Policy Exchange report linked to above gives an illustration. Parkrun publishes age grade % rankings for every parkrun every Saturday; the 5km app publishes the all-time age grade % rankings for each parkrun event (data provided by parkrun). Some of the males currently running in the Female category get exceptionally high age grade % scores, thanks to their scores being inflated by running in the Female category. I know of at least one male in the Male category who lost his all-time age grade % top spot to a male of a similar age who is much slower but runs in the Female category. Because of this loss, this male in the Male category is boycotting parkrun. I know of very fast male Masters runners and very fast boys who have been bumped down from the top spot or near the top of the age grade % rankings by males in the Female category.

Corruption of data

All parkrun results are published on the UK’s official national rankings websites for athletics and running, Power of 10 and Run Britain Rankings respectively, despite the fact that parkrun is unfair and unlicensed (these two websites are for licensed events only). A male is currently ranked very highly in the national women’s rankings for a certain age group with a handicap comprised entirely of parkruns. The nearly 40 “1st Female” parkrun finishes of male B above have all been recognised with a “1” on his male profile on Power of 10. All the actual females who were first to finish on these nearly 40 occasions should have a “1” on their profiles, but instead have a “2” listed. Further, the 1st Male at all these parkruns will also have a “1” next to his name ie two males enjoy having “1”s next to their names instead of one male and one female enjoying this recognition. Numerous males are still registered on these websites as “Female” nearly two years after the NGBs instructed them to register under their birth sex.

Data parkrun publishes

In Feb 2023, parkrun stopped publishing much of its data, including records. It claimed that this data was off-putting for potential newcomers, without ever producing any evidence to substantiate this claim. It is widely believed that the real reason is to hide the impact of males in the Female category eg males holding Female records. Most of the data parkrun no longer publishes is still available on the 5km app.

Two data sets parkrun previously published amounted to sex discrimination. First, the Fastest 500 lists included the fastest 500 runners ever at each parkrun. Since males run faster than females, these lists were comprised mostly of males. At Bushy Park, there were only 11 females on it, the slowest of whom was world class triathlete, Emma Pallant. Second, the weekly sub-17 list on the parkrun homepage listed all runners that week who had broken 17 minutes. This was a mixed-sex list and therefore comprised almost entirely of males. To break 17 minutes for 5km, females must be world class, whereas males need only be reasonable club level athletes.