Dr Jon Pike, senior lecturer in Philosophy and staff tutor at The Open University is lead author on a newly published policy paper suggesting that sporting categories might change in the future to better accommodate sporting endeavour, inclusion and fairness.

In the run-up to the forthcoming Olympic Winter Games in Beijing next month, the details of the paper by Dr Pike and his co-authors suggests a way forward which contests arguments advocating entry into sporting categories by self-identification.

Fair Game, published by Canadian thinktank McDonald-Laurier Institute, proposes that existing “men” and “women” categories in all levels of sport are at risk of being misunderstood, and becoming unfit for the purpose of securing fairness. The paper, directed at policy makers and non-experts, builds on peer-reviewed research published by each of the authors, putting forward an idea to replace existing “men” and “women” sports competing categories with firstly a new “Open” category – in which anyone can participate who wishes to – and secondly an exclusively “Female” category, where female refers to the sex recorded at birth.

Pike’s proposal of two classes; Female and Open, was endorsed as a leading policy option in the report of the Sports Council Equality Group, published last year, and discussed in the House of Lords.

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