London Marathon organisers will wait for further detailed reports from the Equality and Human Rights Commission as well as Sport England before taking any future decisions on the “complex” issue of transgender participants, event director Hugh Brasher has confirmed.
Last week’s Supreme Court ruling confirmed the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex”.
The ruling also stated that a section of the Act which permits the exclusion of athletes based on their sex from gender-affected sports was “plainly predicated on biological sex”.
More than 56,000 people are expected to take part in the 2025 event on Sunday, which could break the current record for finishers and will again raise millions of pounds for charity.
A non-binary gender option has been offered to ballot applicants for the mass participation element since 2023. Elite athlete races, as well as the championship and good for age categories, all operate under current World Athletics rules.
Brasher said: “The London Marathon been very clear about protecting women’s rights, that’s women from birth, women as defined by the court, in terms of competition, good for age, championship, elite athletes.
“We have to wait, as does everybody, for the detailed report to come out from the Equality and Human Rights Commission. It is said to be coming out in the summer and we will also wait for the report from Sport England as well.
“We don’t know what detail is going to come out (in the reports). We obviously will meet what the law says – but there has to be that detail coming out of that Commission and out of Sport England.”
Taking part in the mass event allows for self-selection of gender on the ballot. Applicants can use a passport for ID, which can state gender as different from that assigned at birth.
“This is complex,” Brasher said. “We are clear about what we have done and we are really clear about the competition element – anywhere where there is competition, and that includes good for age, has to be your biological birth sex.”
Brasher added a “considered decision” would be taken by event organisers once the detail is published.
He said: “We delight in being both inclusive, but also protecting in competition the rights of women, which is incredibly important. Lord Coe and World Athletics have always led on that and we absolutely look to continue doing that.”
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British long-distance runner Eilish McColgan is set to take part in her first London Marathon on Sunday, having had to withdraw from the 2023 event because of injury.
The 34-year-old – a Commonwealth champion at 10,000m in 2022 – recently said she is “numb” to negative comments on social media about her body shape after she had posted a video of herself training on a treadmill.
Her mother and coach Liz McColgan – who won the 1996 London Marathon – had hit out at the negative replies, labelling them “demeaning and abusive”.
Brasher described the online abuse received by McColgan as “abhorrent”, praising the athlete for her “exemplary” response.
London Marathon has not posted on the event’s official X account since January.
“It was ceasing to be a positive place to be. The London Marathon is about positivity,” Brasher said.
“It is a force for good and we didn’t feel that channel shared those values and therefore we have come off that channel.”
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