Women’s weightlifters open up about unconscious trans athlete

Female weightlifters Hailey Sikman and Jade Dickens thought they were competing at a normal World’s Strongest Woman championship this past weekend. Instead, they witnessed the nation’s latest trans athlete controversy unfold up close.

Transgender athlete Jammie Booker won first place in the women’s heavyweight division, beating female competitor Andrea Thompson by one point. However, when knowledge of Booker’s biological gender surfaced and prompted viral controversy, Official Strongman revised the results to give Thompson first place.

Sikman and Dickens told Pakinomist Digital that they did not know Booker’s biological gender until after the competition.

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“Unfortunately, Jammie Booker got the best of Andrea Thompson right there at the end. And it wasn’t known by the promoters of either athlete until after the awards ceremony and after everyone had left that Jammie Booker is actually Jeffrey Booker and he’s a man,” Dickens said.

“I was beyond mad… Had I known, I certainly would have done something about it, personally would have done something about it before the event was over. But no one knew that, no one knew that he was a man.”

Dickens said she believes the organization would have removed Booker from the competition if they had known about the athlete’s birth sex.

“Had they had the knowledge, they would have taken care of it before the competition even started,” Dickens said.

Sikman also claimed that she did not know Booker’s biological gender until the competition was over. Still, Sikman had his suspicions about Booker based on the athlete’s appearance.

“He definitely tricked himself in and manipulated a situation,” Sikman said.

During the competition, Sikman also claimed that she tried to interact with the trans athlete, believing Booker to be a woman.

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“I tried to talk to him and he kind of just blew me off,” Sikman added.

Dickens said of Booker’s demeanor during the event: “I did not speak to him personally… he was actually quite quiet… In my opinion the reason he did not speak much was because his voice would have given away that he was a man.”

Sikman claimed she spoke with other competitors who recalled Booker’s behavior over the weekend.

“A lot of other women said he was just arrogant and talking s—,” Sikman said.

Dickens also recalled what she heard from other competitors about Booker’s behavior, saying, “In that competitive atmosphere, everybody digs a little… [trash talking] happens, it happens in all sports.”

On Monday, Booker posted a video on Instagram thanks several people for their help in what was initially a victory.

A YouTube video from what appears to be Booker’s own channel dating back to 2017 shows Booker claims to be “trans”. According to Strongman ArchiveBooker had not competed in the women’s events until last June. It is unclear if Booker had previously competed as a man.

The official Strongman announced that Booker would be “disqualified”. Strongman said it had tried to reach Booker “but no response has been received.”

However, Sikman hopes to see stricter measures to prevent men from sneaking into women’s competitions going forward, saying she hopes “genetic testing or some kind of screening process” could be employed by Official Strongman.

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Meanwhile, Dickens, who said she has been an advocate for protecting women’s sports dating back to 2018, because she has previously witnessed men competing in her powerlifting federation, hopes the public will take notice of this issue.

“People keep saying this is a non-issue, that it doesn’t happen often, that this will go away,” Dickens said. “Where is our trust? This just breaks down the fabric of womanhood… we want to trust everyone around us, and when men come in and fraudulently try to take what is rightfully a woman’s, it erodes the trust of that woman.”