There are vivid examples of athletes who took drastic measures because of a mismatch between gender identity and gender. Such a transformation causes a lot of controversy and controversy, especially on the part of biological girls who are not ready to compete with transgender people.

In this regard, athletes who have changed their gender to male attract less attention. However, the Olympic champion from Australia decided on this unpopular step and increased her rating instantly.

Not a single winner of the Games has dared to make such changes.

First in everything

Ellia Green is truly a unique athlete. So it was destined that she was born and grew up exactly when rugby-7 became an Olympic sport. It’s hard to imagine, but rugby has been featured in the Games since 1900. But after 24 years, the original version of the game received a ban from the IOC. As they say, because of the riots in Paris, when the national team lost the gold of the 1924 Olympics to the Americans.

In 2016, Brazil was honored to host the first rugby sevens tournament on the Olympic programme. In the girls’ tournament, the Australian team won, in which Green played. Although the athlete was born in Fiji, in her youth she moved to the “green continent” and, after her passion for athletics, became a professional rugby player.

Gemma Etheridge and Ellia Green / Photo: © picture alliance / Contributor / picture alliance / Gettyimages.com

Two years after the Olympics, Ellia took silver at the Commonwealth Games. But, to the surprise of many, the Australians were not selected for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

As it turned out, this tragic event for the girls of the national team was the reason for very important changes in the life of Ellia Green. She had been thinking about changing gender for a long time, and in the absence of the next sports tournament, she made a key decision:

– The only thing that supported me was a planned operation. It was something I was literally counting down the days to,” says Green, now 29.

Ellia Green / Photo: © Personal archive of Ellia Green

So Ellia became the first female Olympic champion to change gender. However, her suffering did not end there.

Important role

Against the background of the confrontation between transgender people and sports federations, Green cannot be silent. As you know, the International Rugby Union banned trans women from participating in competitions, and the head of the athletics federation, Sebastian Coe, stressed that a similar decision could be made in his department.

Despite the fact that Green is an example of the opposite story, no one can forbid him to fight for the rights of all transgender people. Especially in native sports for men:

“I think some people think we’re aliens just because we don’t follow the social norm. But imagine not being able to do what you love because of how you identify with yourself. I think it’s shameful and offensive to ban transgender people from playing sports,” Greene notes.

Green has already retired from sports and is now trying to change the world of sports. For example, by recording a video message to the participants of the international summit in Canada dedicated to the fight against homophobia and transphobia in sports. Many transgender athletes will definitely take a cue from the open stance of an Australian.

New turn of history

For a more accurate understanding of the exclusivity of Green, it is worth paying attention to the history of sports. For all time, of the most famous athletes, such a step was decided more due to the misuse of stimulant drugs than due to natural causes.

For example, in the 21st century, a noticeable transformation occurred with Yelena Isinbayeva’s rival, the German Yvonne Bushbaum. In 2007, the repeated winner of the European Championships in the pole vault became a man. Not the last role in this was played by just the medications, which during the career strongly influenced the hormones of the former woman.

Photo: © picture alliance / Contributor / picture alliance / Gettyimages.ru, Joshua Summer / Stringer / Getty Images Entertainment / Gettyimages.ru

An even more typical example from the same Germany is Heidi Krieger, who from the age of 16 took drugs that increase testosterone to an incredible level. The 1986 European champion in the shot put fell into depression, retired at 24 and changed sex, becoming Andreas.

Such examples are very different from Ellia Green’s situation. But the story of the Australian once again emphasizes that the world is changing, and now the gender change cannot be attributed to doping. It remains to figure out what to do with such people in sports and how to ensure their rights are respected without infringing on the rights of those who are satisfied with their gender from birth.