Olympic Champion Sharron Davies Elevated to House of Lords

Historic Appointment for British Swimming Legend

Sharron Davies, the former Olympic swimmer, will be made a Conservative peer after leading a campaign to ban transwomen from women’s sport. The Plymouth-born swimmer was one of three peerage nominations from Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, marking a significant recognition of her decades-long contribution to British sport and women’s rights advocacy.

Sharron Elizabeth Davies is an English former swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships and competed for England in the Commonwealth Games. She won a silver medal in the 400 m individual medley in the 1980 Olympics. Her sporting career spans an impressive period, with two gold medals in the 1978 Commonwealth Games and a silver medal in the 1980 Moscow Olympics among her achievements.

A Champion for Women’s Sports

Davies has become increasingly prominent in recent years for her advocacy work. She began campaigning for female sports to be restricted to biological women in 2019 after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the requirement for athletes who identify as women to have had sex reassignment surgery. She went on to write a letter to the IOC, signed by more than 60 world-class athletes, urging it to ban biological men from taking part in female-only events.

Her activism extends beyond professional sport. In 2025, Davies on Good Morning Britain announced that she and sailor Tracy Edwards had formed a “women’s sports union” designed to ensure the separation of transgender athletes from female sports at the recreational and junior levels, demonstrating her commitment to protecting women’s sporting categories at all levels of competition.

Significance of the Appointment

She appeared on the list as: “Sharron Davies MBE – Campaigner for Women’s Rights & Olympic Swimming Silver Medallist for Great Britain.” Following her nomination, Davies said it would be “exciting to carry on fighting for women’s rights and safeguarding as well as trying to get as many kids, in particular, doing sport as possible”.

This appointment represents not only recognition of Davies’ sporting achievements but also acknowledgement of her advocacy work. The Conservative Party said the nomination recognised Davies’s achievements in sport and her campaigning on women’s rights. As she prepares to take her seat in the House of Lords, Davies will continue to be a prominent voice in debates surrounding women’s sports, youth participation in athletics, and safeguarding issues affecting women and girls across the United Kingdom.