Transgender athlete ‘was very dishonest’, says world’s strongest woman Andrea Thompson

A British athlete crowned the world’s strongest woman says she was “robbed” of her winning moment after it emerged the original champion was a transgender woman who was ineligible to compete.

Andrea Thompson was awarded the title retrospectively after American athlete Jammie Booker was disqualified.

Thompson told BBC Sport the competition, held in Arlington, Texas, was “overshadowed by somebody who shouldn’t have been there”.

“I was very frustrated and angry with what she’s done,” she said. “She lied and was very dishonest, and took away a lot of things from a lot of women.

“The lady that came 11th didn’t get the chance to do the third day… to have the top 10 status in the world.”

Organisers, Official Strongman, said “competitors could only compete in the category for their biological sex recorded at birth”, and that they had disqualified the athlete in question “who is biologically male”.