Imperfect Women, a Problem and a Threat: New Study Examines How Central European Media Talk About Transgender Sportswomen

In a new study, Kateřina Turková, Alice Němcová Tejkalová, Anna Hrbáčková, and Veronika Macková from the ICSJ FSV UK analyze how Central European sports media portrayed transgender sportswomen in 2023. The research shows that the media predominantly framed them as a problem—either as a spectacle that attracts attention or as a threat to women’s sport and women in general. Media outlets often described them as cheaters, men, or “imperfect women” who disrupt traditional gender categories. The study, titled Celebrification of Transgender Sportswomen Through Critical Media Coverage: The First Step Towards Acknowledgement in Central European Countries, was published in the prestigious journal Celebrity Studies.

The authors conducted a qualitative analysis of the online sports sections of the most widely read newspapers in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The findings demonstrated that media coverage frequently ridiculed transgender sportswomen or portrayed them as “against nature” and as a threat to women’s sport. Media attention also focused primarily on questions of fairness and the impact of transgender women’s participation on biological women.

The media often based their arguments on specific individuals. For example, American swimmer Lia Thomas and cyclist Austin Killips were presented, due to their physical characteristics and athletic performance, as examples supporting claims that competition is unfair when transgender athletes are included in women’s categories. The study also found that media coverage frequently conflated and confused transgender and intersex athletes.

The published research shows that these transgender sportswomen became celebrities largely against their will—not because of their sporting achievements, but because of their perceived difference. This distinguishes them from athletes who achieve celebrity status through sporting success or physical attractiveness and thereby receive desirable media attention. For transgender sportswomen, media coverage can instead be unwelcome and, in some cases, distressing.

The Typical Celebrity

In the theoretical section of the study, the authors propose possible explanations for this framing. According to previous research, most members of the public imagine a “typical” sports celebrity as an attractive, heterosexual white man competing in a popular team sport, such as football.

Traditional gender expectations also continue to dominate the sporting environment, shaping perceptions of who is considered eligible to participate in sport. When athletes do not conform to these expectations, media and public reactions tend to be more negative. Similarly, athletes from ethnic minorities often receive less favorable media coverage, and women competing in “traditionally feminine” sports are generally portrayed more positively—although this trend has gradually been changing.

Society often views sports celebrities as symbols of “physical perfection,” and for this reason the bodies of transgender athletes or para-athletes may be perceived as “different” or “problematic.”

At the same time, the study suggests that despite the predominantly negative and controversial media portrayal, the processes of mediatization and celebrification of transgender sportswomen may paradoxically contribute to greater visibility and gradual social acceptance, much as occurred previously with women athletes and LGB athletes.

The study is available online as an open-access publication.