Male, female and ‘open’

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) voted against allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s competitions – the exception being that the transgender athlete must have completed their transition before the age of 12.

This policy was voted on by 274 members, of which 196 cast their votes in favor of it. The ruling only applies to elite competitions run by FINA. Athletics and FIFA were reported by the BBC and British media, as two other major sporting bodies prepared to follow the signing of swimming.

FINA President Hussein Al-Musallam announced that a working group is being set up to create an ‘open category’ in some FINA competitions. On the ‘open category’, Musallam said, ‘The creation of an open category will mean that everyone gets a chance to compete at the elite level. He then added, “It hasn’t been done before, so FINA will need to take the lead.”

Seb Coe, IAAF boss for track and field, later told the BBC: “We see that an international federation is asserting its priority in setting rules, regulations and policies in the best interest of its sport.

Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas swims in the first leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay at the Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in Harvard on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 in Cambridge, Mass. (ap file)

This is as it should be. We have always believed that biology trumps gender and we will continue to review our rules accordingly. We will follow the science. ,

The move was also widely criticized by gender activists on the grounds of exclusion.

Why have these changes been made?

Transgender athletes in sports, especially transgender women participating in women’s competitions, are at the center of this change. Case studies of a transgender woman who has gone through male puberty and then later converted to a female have been shown to maintain testosterone levels leading to higher structural gains in sports over cisgenders (of a person whose sense of identity and gender coincide with their birth gender) women.

Ross Tucker, a sports scientist, explained on his podcast, The Real Science of Sport, that the effects of testosterone on post-pubertal body development are different for men and women. He said that according to at least 13 case studies, in men who later transition to becoming a woman, the effects of testosterone do not completely dissipate as they transition to becoming a woman.

“In many of the physiological systems that are relevant to performance – muscle mass, muscle strength, body performance, body fat, heart and lung size – testosterone creates things that are never fully undone, PhD Tucker on the Real Science of Sport podcast. , Then he added, “The difference between men and women for strength, strength, and muscle mass can be 30-40%. Testosterone suppression for a year can take away 5-10%. The result is a fairly large sustained gain – and If you retained the organic benefit, you retained the performance gain.”

What is the stand of the IOC and other major sports bodies?

This is the importance given to testosterone and when it affects the human body, it has divided world bodies to such an extent that the International Olympic Committee and the International Swimming Federation have nearly opposite policies on transgender athletes.

For example, World Athletics states that once transgender women have low testosterone for 12 months, they should be allowed to compete in competition. USA Swimming directs that trans athletes must undergo three years of hormone replacement therapy before they are allowed to compete.

The IOC’s post-trans-inclusion framework essentially empowered the sport’s major bodies to decide how they would include their transgender athletes. It has also been said that sporting bodies should not automatically assume that trans female athletes were inherently more advantageous than cisgender female athletes, nor that transgender women should increase their testosterone levels to compete. should not be reduced.

FINA called its Medical, Legal and Athlete Counsel to speak at its extraordinary congress. Each lawyer had a few representatives who talked about why FINA came to the decision. And then member organizations voted for this historic measure.

In March, Lia Thomas told Sports Illustrated: “The very simple answer is that I’m not a man. I’m a woman, so I’m on the women’s team. Trans people deserve the same respect every other athlete gets.” is.” (Twitter)

Why is Lia Thomas so important to this decision?

One could say that Lia Thomas was the reason why the world body of swimming took this measure. Thomas previously competed in the men’s swimming class for Penn State University and was part of their team for three years. In 2019, she started undergoing hormone replacement therapy as per NCAA and Ivy League regulations.

In 2022, after two years and six months of therapy, she competed in the 500-yard NCAA Swimming Championships and finished first, beating Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Emma Weynt.

In March, Lia Thomas told Sports Illustrated: “The very simple answer is that I’m not a man. I’m a woman, so I’m on the women’s team. Trans people deserve the same respect every other athlete gets.” Is. “

Reka György, who competed for Hungary at the 2016 Rio Olympics, complained about missing her final race for the NCAA. According to the Guardian, she said that Thomas essentially took her place and that it hurt her, her team and the other women in the pool. Thomas said she was looking forward to competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics and considering her timing, she might have won a medal for the USA. It is important to note that before transitioning to becoming a woman, Liz Thomas was already an NCAA swimming athlete.

Why are the words ‘competitive fairness’ so important in this FINA decision?

The benefits of testosterone on Liz Thomas’ body before she became a woman provided her with the ideal setup to become an elite athlete. This was despite NCAA rules regarding hormone replacement therapy and a three-year hiatus.

This is why competitive fairness is a term that was used in extraordinary congresses. This was the main reason why transgender women were barred from elite competitions unless their transition occurred before the age of 12. However the age of 12 is not scientifically deterministic and a random number as puberty does not occur in the human body at a given age. , Transition also requires three phases – social, medical involving hormones, and surgical.

“What do they mean by these three? Should the patient have surgery by that time, which is nearly impossible,” said Dr. Alireza Hamidian Jahromi, co-director of the Gender Affirmation Surgery Center at Temple University Hospitals in Philadelphia.

authentication issue

“All athletes must certify their chromosomal sex with their member association to be eligible for FINA competitions,” read the latest decision. Add to this how this certification would take place (“Member federations must verify their athletes’ certification of chromosomal sex when registering their athletes to compete in FINA competitions”) and suddenly all of them have to do so through their own federations. Gender will have to be proved and chromosomal test on the lines of doping test.

What is the ‘Other’ category and what does it include?

The second part of FINA’s decision was to come up with an ‘open range’, over the next six months. This would be the category that would include transgender athletes. While there are many sides to this idea scientifically – including which trans athletes are able to run among each other – there are problems.

There is a problem of numbers. There are not enough transgender elite athletes around. A Liz Thomas can essentially go through her entire life without competing in the Olympics because there just aren’t enough elite transgender female swimmers in the world. The judgment fails on this account.

It also fails on the issue of privacy where an athlete can decide his gender position without coercion. In a BBC article on transgender athletes in sport, Tucker talked about the flip side, saying, “There is still a lot of stigma attached to being trans and I’m not sure whether or not to create a platform through sport.” It will help to overcome it.. If anything, some obstacles may arise.”

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Trans question in other games

While FINA adopted its constitution prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in women’s competitions, in other sports athletes in both team and individual sports compete at the highest level and grapple with the difficult issue.

soccer

Canadian athlete Quinn won the gold medal in football when his team defeated Sweden in the final of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Quinn in the process became the first transgender athlete to win a medal at the Olympics.

lifting weights

In the women’s +87kg weightlifting category, Laurel Habbard made history by becoming one of the first openly transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics. While she failed to enter the lift at age 43, this would probably be the last time she competed in high-level weightlifting—something she said when she said age was catching up with her. Habbard made the infection in a 35-year-old woman.

skateboarding

In the new Olympic discipline of skateboarding, Allana Smith stood out and stood out. From Forth Worth, Texas, Smith came in last place on her event, the women’s road, but participating was the real prize for the 20-year-old. “I wanted to get out of this knowing that I was casually myself and was actually smiling,” Smith wrote on Instagram.

rugby

In October 2021, World Rugby became the first international sporting governing body to ban transgender women from competing in global competitions such as the Olympics and the Women’s Rugby World Cup, although each country can determine whether transgender women are allowed to participate in domestic sports. whether to continue or not. Rugby Competitions. The decision was discussed for nine months, at the end of which, World Rugby stated that in a collision sport with multiple injuries, “assurance of safety and fairness for women competing against trans women in contact rugby cannot be given.”