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Linda Blade (@CoachBlade) has been championing  girls' and women's sports equality in Canada for years. Her book: "Unsporting" about Canada's policy of permitting self-identifying men in women's sport, was written in partnership with National Post columnist Barbara Kay and is published by Out.Sport. 

In this riveting podcast, Linda speaks of her remarkable professional life, empowering girls across the globe. Linda reveals how she missed out on becoming an Olympic athlete because she was a young woman during the mid 80s when doping  was rife. Linda refused to cheat and so could not compete with those advantaged by doping.  Like UK Olympic medalist Sharron Davies, Linda has first-hand experience of how a sporting career can be hobbled by being forced to compete against athletes whom everyone knows, have an overwhelming, unfair advantage. Linda, whose academic background is in biology, observes that the advantages gained by women athletes from doping are significantly less than the advantages conferred by male puberty. Yet today, women are expected to compete against males, many of whom have not even lowered their testosterone - although as she explains, lowering testosterone makes no difference to the multiple advantages that males have over females in most sports. 

Linda speaks with passion, authority and the benefit of experience, looking back at the painstaking gains made by elite women athletes from the modern incarnation of Olympic Games in 1904. Listeners will come to understand just how incremental and precarious those gains have been. 

Linda observes the differences between Canada and "Terf Island", and the growth of female athlete solidarity across the world with the aim of forming a force to give voice to women in elite sports.  Linda sets out why the inclusion of males and females sport will corrupt all sport. A consortia of elite women athletes will enable women to challenge the discriminatory policies of bodies such as the IOC and the UCI, governments and national governing bodies such as British Cycling. 
 
Linda explains how Canada's extreme policy was imposed on sports federations from the top down. She describes her shock and disbelief, both at the absence of any consultation with women athletes and with the mute, unquestioning acceptance by everyone in sports administration of what most know to be a grotesque distortion of sporting principles & an injustice. 

Undaunted, Linda is President of Alberta Track and Field in Canada. At her re-election she challenged delegates not to re-elect if they disagreed with her stance on preserving fairness for women and girls. She was reelected. Yet she continues to be one of only a handful of rational voices in Canada. She has a global following on Twitter. She's a consummate professional, an athlete, coach and senior sports administrator of 25 years' experience. She continues to campaign in the ongoing struggle for women & girls' equality in sport. An inspirational listen & a call to join the campaign.

#SaveWomensSports #SexNotGender #RespectMySex

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