Rooney said she too wrestles with the conundrum of wanting to fight for both fairness and inclusion, and believes not enough research has been done to be certain they are irreconcilable.

But she said ex-athletes such as herself and Thorpe should respect the views of current athletes like Campbell.

“It is difficult for someone who is no longer an athlete, and hasn’t been an athlete for a long period of time, to make a stance on this,” Rooney said.

“Where it probably has to most be taken notice of is from the athletes who are in the sport at the moment, and the females in particular who are in the sport at the moment. They made their stance fairly clear and I think that’s who we have to listen to.”

Rooney said FINA and other sports should pour more time and effort into researching the science of transgender advantage in sport.

“The hardest thing about this is there is no winning, from any side. No matter how you look at this,” she said.

“What I said even before the ruling, and what still needs to be done in my opinion, is we still don’t have enough data. We don’t have enough research, so we are making decisions without a proper platform to make those decisions on.

“[FINA’s ban] shouldn’t be set in concrete and more than anything, there needs to be a lot more data and a lot more research, and from a lot more different people as well, and experts in different fields.

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“I think it is needs to be quite fluid in terms of rules, and looked at often.

“And as more data and more research is available, and the more people have a handle on the complexities, then FINA should be looking at their ruling again and again, as often as is needed.”

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