In this episode of Family Matters, Simon O’Connor interviews Jonathan “Jono” Mcfarlane, a former New Zealand’s Strongest Man, multiple Highland Games champion, and a Guinness World Record holder (for being able to throw a person the furthest; he did hold the record for throwing a 100 pound washing machine, but later beaten by actor who played ‘The Mountain’ in Game of Thrones’. As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) insists that athletes compete according to their biological sex, Simon and Jono talk the very real biological differences between men and women in sport. As Jono notes, his perspective comes from years of being in elite sport and as a strength athlete – so shot put, discus, wrestling, strongman, highland games, and more. Jono describes how he started shot put at age 14, taking up Olympic weightlifting at 16, and later doing strongman. He retired in 2019 to avoid being “broken” and to be even more present as a dad. He also talks about his parallel ministry path as an Anglican priest, recalling a funny moment where he married a couple and then literally ran to compete in highland games, switching his liturgical garb for kilt. The key message from Jono is that when it comes to the biological reality of male vs female performance in elite sport, the gap between men and women is much larger at these top levels than many realise, making male participation in women’s sport inherently unfair and often unsafe. Jono talks through examples in shot put and strongman competitions, sharing the successes of the exceptional Valerie Adams and putting her achievements alongside the men’s competition (and vice versa). He also talks the situation around Laurel Hubbard, and how all the manifest differences (e.g. being 39 years old, whereas most lifters are in their twenties or very early thirties) simply keeps pointing to the fact that being a biological man gives an advantage. Simon and Jono finally discuss how all this supports the recent IOC decision, but that various New Zealand sports entities still seem confused as to what to do, ultimately pushing girls and women out of competitions and impacting safety. #familymatters #FamilyFirst #FamilyFirstNZ