Transgender runner Glenique Frank is offering to return her London Marathon finisher’s medal over the outrage caused by her beating nearly 14,000 women in the female category.
Two-time Olympian Mara Yamauchi — who finished sixth in the marathon at the 2008 Beijing Olympics — earlier this week condemned the rules that allowed Frank to compete in the women’s category.
Yamauchi took issue when the 54-year-old personal trainer gushed to the BBC about using “girl power” to run the race.
Frank has now responded through an interview with the New York Post.
“If they want me to give my medal back, I’ll say, ‘OK, fine. No problem,’” Frank exclusively told The Post of the unintended outrage Sunday’s run sparked.
“If they really think I’ve stolen the place [of a female runner], I don’t mind giving the medal back, because I’ll run again next year for charity.
“But I don’t want to apologise, because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Frank stated firmly — saying she was only sorry for “upsetting” her critics, who she maintained were mostly “haters.”
“They’re angry because they’re saying that one of 14,000 women behind me could have had my place. Really? I did [the race in] 4 hours 11 minutes. There’s lots of women that beat me,” noted Frank, who came in 6,159th place in the female category.
“I get it … I’m not a woman, I don’t have a womb,” said Frank, who plans to pay around $20,000 to have “top and bottom surgery” next year.
“But I didn’t compete as an elite, so I didn’t steal any money.”
Frank told The Post she was “just trying to spread joy and happiness with the rainbow love” when she stopped to speak to a BBC reporter covering the UK race on Sunday.
The footage showed Frank, in a sports bra and draped in a transgender flag, crediting “girl power” while flexing her muscles — then gushing about how she was soon “going to be a gran — Granny G!”
Her celebratory interview only became viral after it was shared by outraged two-time Olympic marathon runner Mara Yamauchi, who raged: “Males in the [female] category is UNFAIR for females.”
Yamauchi noted how the hobbyist ran as a female just months after competing in the New York Marathon as a male.
Frank stressed, however, that London was the first of her 17 planned marathons for which she was able to pick her own name and gender.
The other major marathons — Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago and NYC — all forced her to register under the name and gender on her passport.
“When I entered the London Marathon, it says, ‘female,’ ‘male’ or ‘other,’” she said of the registration form.
“I ticked ‘female’ because I see myself as female,” said Frank, calling it “quite sad” that anyone should have to describe themselves as “other.”
While UK Athletics applied World Athletics rules on the exclusion of transgender women from female competitions, those who’d already entered races were allowed to still compete.
Frank swore she never intended to trick anyone, and will stick to whatever rules are in place at any race.
While she had to enter previous marathons like New York as a male, she shared photos with The Post showing her running it in a bright-red sports bra covering fake boobs — and wearing heels and a pink wig while staying in the Big Apple, which she hailed for being so “welcoming.”
“I’ve known since I was 5 that I was in the wrong body,” Frank said of the pain of leading “a double life.”
It created so much anger, Frank said, that she was nicknamed “Psycho” before she transitioned about three years ago to Glenique, a mix of Glen and “unique.”
The transition also means that running against biological women is not cheating, she claimed.
She even wrote to her main critic, Yamauchi, telling her: “I’m not at an advantage as I have very low testosterone level due to” hormone replacement therapy.
Frank plans to continue her hobby, saying: “I’m just blessed to be able to travel the world and run and raise money in all these marathons.”
That includes Berlin, Chicago and Boston, each of which she has already entered as a male under her birth name, as required in each race.
Despite the uproar from this year’s race, Frank also plans to run London again next year, her fourth time.
This time, though, “I’m going to enter under ‘other’ or ‘male,’ just to keep everybody happy,” she said.
“And I’ll still do it in 4 hours and I won’t steal anybody’s money,” she quipped of her modest goal.
Officials for the London Marathon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yamauchi first tweeted: “Males in the [female] category is UNFAIR for females.
“Nearly 14,000 actual females suffered a worse finish position [because] of” Frank, wrote Yamauchi — who said that even when she was “ranked second in the world” as a woman, “at least 1300 men ran faster than me.”
— This story originally appeared on nypost.com and has been republished with permission
