Rio Olympian Maddie Groves has returned serve to those questioning the place of transgender athletes in sport, saying critics needed to educate themselves on the regulations before suggesting the playing field had become uneven.

The complex, multi-tiered debate has morphed into a political issue in the lead-up to the Federal election. Prime minister Scott Morrison has backed a private members bill that would allow sports clubs to exclude transgender participants, while supporting controversial Warringah Liberal candidate Katherine Deves, who claims to be a defender of women’s sport and is an outspoken critic of trans participation.

Groves, who won a silver medal in butterfly in Rio and whose claims of misogyny and abuse sparked a raft of reforms at Swimming Australia, has now weighed into the debate. Her support of trans athletes come during a week when two of the nation’s leading swimmers expressed their concerns about fairness at the elite levels.

Emma McKeon, the record-breaking star of the Tokyo pool, told an event at Griffith University that she would not want to compete against a biological male who had transitioned. Her comments were regarding American swimmer Lia Thomas, a trans athlete who won an NCAA title and in turn sparked a global debate.

“I would not want to be racing against someone who is biologically a male,” McKeon told a forum. “I have not had to and at the moment I think it is just in the college system in America.”

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Backstroker Emily Seebohm was another to express her concerns, telling The Today Show: “I love my sport and I want to share it with everyone but we also need to think of fairness too and what’s fair for the athletes.

“Biological males are always going to be faster and stronger than I will ever be … and I want to compete on that same level playing field. We need to have that same level playing field just like we do with drugs in sport.”

Groves used her social media platforms to make the contrary case, saying the debate had been hijacked and critics needed to educate themselves. She also lashed the notion that allowing transgender athletes to compete was akin to the era of East German doping.