A RAPPER has weighed in to the transgender athlete row by beating a host of female weightlifting records while “identifying as a woman”.
Hip-hop artist and Oxford graduate Zuby is on a mission to show athletes who are genetically male should not be allowed to compete alongside women.
He was filmed last week beating Britain’s women’s deadlift record while and the video has been watched over a million times since he shared it online.
Zuby, 32, also went on to smash the UK women’s bench press record and tongue-in-cheekily claimed his work was “strong, stunning and brave”.
His actions are in response to the debate surrounding participation of transgender athletes in sport.
Cyclist Rachel McKinnon received more than 100,000 hate messages on Twitter after winning the UCI Masters Track World Championship title in October.
Rival Jen Wagner-Assali, who finished third, claimed it was “unfair” and called on cycling's international governing body to change its rules.
Tennis star Martina Navratilova, a long-term LGBT rights campaigned, is among those claiming it is unfair for born males to self-identify as women to participate in female events.
TRACK RECORD Lewis Hamilton dines with Odell Beckham Jr and models before 3am cab packed with girls at Paris Fashion Week
And swimming legend Sharron Davies yesterday told BBC a host of female athletes shared those feelings.
She said: “It is not a transphobic thing… there needs to be a fair and level playing field.”
LATEST SPORT NEWS
But some have argued back claiming that point of view is prejudice and all athletes have advantages over each other such as height or hormones.
In an interview with The Times, Southampton-born Zuby has waded in to the dispute now and says his video has “struck a nerve”.
He said: “It was done in a humorous way, but it made it more real: it showed the fallacies of the arguments on the other side.
“I have seen people saying there is no inherent biological strength difference between men and women.
“I posted it being a bit tongue-in-cheek, showing what I think is the obvious absurdity of their argument.”
“I said four or five years ago that you are going to start having biological males competing against women [in sporting events]. People thought I was being alarmist.”
A fierce backlash ensued following Navratilova’s comments, but Zuby insists the reaction to his video has been “98 per cent positive”.
Zuby added: “There was a small number of people who tried to make out that I had evil intent. Among my trans followers, most agreed. Some said to me, ‘This thing is clearly silly.’”
Under guidelines introduced in 2016, the IOC allows athletes transitioning from female to male to participate without restrictions.
Male to female competitors are required to have kept their levels of testosterone - a hormone that increases muscle mass - below a certain level for at least 12 months.