‘World’s Strongest Woman’ stripped of title in transgender scandal
The winner of the 2025 World’s Strongest Woman competition has been stripped of the title after organizers discovered Jammie Booker, who won the tournament, was born a man. The decision is the latest in a growing series of disputes over biological males competing in women’s events.
The case emerged at the Cerberus Strength Official Strongman Games in Texas over the weekend, where Philadelphia competitor Booker won the Women’s Open category. Organizers said they were unaware before the contest that the athlete was biologically male.
“Given this, we have disqualified the athlete in question,” Official Strongman said in a statement on social media, adding that it has a responsibility to “ensure fairness” by assigning athletes to men’s or women’s categories based on their sex at birth. The final tally has since been updated to list the UK’s Andrea Thompson as the winner.
The participation of transgender athletes in sporting events has been a source of growing controversy. The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee barred transgender women from competing in women’s Olympic events in July, complying with an order by President Donald Trump, which bans transgender females from women’s teams and threatens federal funding for institutions that violate the policy.
Cases such as US swimmer Lia Thomas and New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard have fueled debate over whether transgender competitors retain advantages over biological females, even as the International Olympic Committee declared in 2021 that there should be “no presumption of advantage” and later handed over eligibility decisions to individual federations.
The issue resurfaced at the 2024 Paris Olympics when Algerian boxer Imane Khelif – previously ruled ineligible for the World Championships over the gender criteria – won gold, prompting former IOC President Thomas Bach to argue that there is “no scientifically solid system” to distinguish between men and women in sports.
The IOC is now set to bar transgender women from female categories at the Olympics under a new eligibility policy expected next year, The Times reported earlier this month, citing sources. The revision is reportedly based on a scientific review concluding that the physical advantages associated with male puberty can persist even after testosterone levels are medically reduced.
