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Women's weightlifters Hailey Sikman and Jade Dickens thought they were competing at a normal World's Strongest Woman championship this past weekend. Instead, they witnessed the nation's latest trans athlete controversy unfurl up close.
Transgender athlete Jammie Booker won first place in the women's heavyweight, beating female competitor Andrea Thompson by one point. However, once knowledge of Booker's biological sex emerged and prompted viral controversy, Official Strongman revised the results to give Thompson first place.
Sikman and Dickens told Fox News Digital they had no knowledge of Booker's biological sex until after the competition.
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"Unfortunately, Jammie Booker got the best of Andrea Thompson right there at the end. And it wasn't known to the promoters to any of the athletes until after the award ceremony and after everyone was gone that Jammie Booker is actually Jeffrey Booker, and he is a man," Dickens said.
"I was beyond mad… Had I known, I definitely would have done something about it, personally would have done something about it prior to the event being over. But nobody knew, nobody knew he was a man."
Dickens said she believes the organization would have removed Booker from competition, had they known of the athlete's birth sex.
"Had they had the knowledge, they would have taken care of it before the competition even started," Dickens said.
Sikman also claimed she didn't know of Booker's biological sex until after the competition was over. Still, Sikman had her suspicions about Booker based on the athlete's appearance.
"He definitely conned himself in and manipulated a situation," Sikman said.
During the competition, Sikman also claimed she tried to interact with the trans athlete, believing Booker was a woman.
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"I tried to talk to him and he kind of just blew me off," Sikman added.
Dickens said of Booker's behavior during the event, "I didn't personally speak to him… he was actually pretty quiet… In my opinion, the reason he didn't talk much was because his voice would have revealed he was male."
Sikman claimed she spoke to other competitors who recalled Booker's behavior during the weekend.
"A lot of other women were saying he was just being arrogant and talking s---," Sikman said.
Dickens also recalled what she heard from other competitors about Booker's conduct, saying, "In that competition atmosphere, everyone is doing a little digging… [trash talking] happens, it happens in all sports."
On Monday, Booker posted a video to Instagram thanking numerous people for their assistance in what was originally a victory.
A YouTube video from what appears to be Booker's own channel, dating back to 2017, shows Booker claiming to be "trans."
According to Strongman Archives, Booker had not competed in women's events prior to this past June. It is unclear whether Booker had previously competed as a man.
Official Strongman announced that Booker would be "disqualified." Strongman said it had attempted to reach out to Booker, "but a response has not been received."
However, Sikman hopes to see stricter measures to prevent males from sneaking into women's competitions moving forward, saying she hopes "genetic testing or some sort of vetting process," can be employed by Official Strongman.
Meanwhile, Dickens, who said she's been an advocate for protecting women's sports dating back to 2018 because she had to witness males compete in her power lifting federation in the past, hopes the public takes notice of this issue.
"People keep saying this is a non-issue, that this does not happen that often, that this is going to go away," Dickens said. "Where is our trust? This just breaks down the fabric of womanhood… we want to be trusting of everyone around us, and when men come in and deceitfully try to take what is rightfully a woman's, it erodes the trust for that woman."
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