Fina, swimming’s world governing body, has voted to bar transgender women from elite female races if they have gone through any part of male puberty.
The new policy, which passed with 71% of the vote of 125 national federations at the World Championship in Budapest on 19 June, was described as “only a first step towards full inclusion” for transgender athletes. This decision was made following the publishing of a report from a Fina scientific panel that found trans women retained a significant advantage over cisgender women swimmers even after going through hormone therapy. It also follows a move on Thursday by the UCI, cycling’s governing body, to double the period of time a rider transitioning from male to female can compete in women’s races.
The 34-page policy document states that male-to-female transgender athletes could now compete in the women’s category only “provided they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 [which marks the start of physical development], or before the age of 12, whichever is later”.
The vote makes swimming the second Olympic governing body, after World Rugby in 2020, to introduce a ban on scientific grounds and the first international body to make a decision about trans athletes at the Olympic level. Most other sports have used testosterone levels as a basis for allowing trans women to compete in the women’s category.
However, the policy does not apply to national federations or the US colleges championships, the NCAAs. Instead, each national federation will need to decide if it is to implement the Fina policy.
The report was conducted by a transgender task force made up of leading figures from the world of medicine, law and sport. According to Brent Nowicki, the governing body’s executive director, “Fina’s approach in drafting this policy was comprehensive, science-based and inclusive, and, importantly, Fina’s approach emphasised competitive fairness.”
Commenting on the policy the Fina president, Husain Al-Musallam, stated that the organisation was trying “to protect the rights of our athletes to compete [but to also] protect competitive fairness”.
Fina will also attempt to establish an ‘open’ category at competitions for swimmers whose gender identity is different from their birth sex as part of its new policy.
“Fina will always welcome every athlete,” concluded Musallam. “The creation of an open category will mean that everybody has the opportunity to compete at an elite level. This has not been done before, so Fina will need to lead the way.”
Within 24 hours of the adoption of the policy, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe hinted that track and field could soon follow suit—even though there are currently no elite-level trans track and field athletes. The group’s council would also be reviewing its transgender and DSD (differences in sex development) athletes policies at the end of the year.
Former Great Britain swimmer Sharron Davies, who has argued against the participation of transgender athletes in women’s elite swimming, told BBC Sport that “swimming is a very inclusive sport, we love everyone to come and swim and be involved. But the cornerstone of sport is that it has to be fair and it has to be fair for both sexes.”
When asked whether Fina’s policy left trans athletes “in limbo” while they waited for an ‘open’ category to be created, Davies stated that "sport by definition is exclusionary - we don't have 15-year-old boys racing in the under-12s, we don't have heavyweight boxers in with the bantamweights, the whole reason we have lots of different classes in the Paralympics is so that we can create fair opportunities for everybody," she said.
"So that is the whole point of having classifications in sports and the only people who were going to be losing out were females - they were losing their right to fair sport."
Ex-GB swimmer Karen Pickering told BBC Radio 4: "I empathise that there will be people who now can't compete in the category that they identify with as their gender. That is very sad and I do understand that, but in this situation, inclusivity and fairness cannot be compatible and the science has shown that there is just no way to make that compatible."
Nevertheless, ‘Athlete Ally’ — an LGBT advocacy group that organised a letter of support for Lia Thomas in February, claimed that the policy was “discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles”.
Anne Lieberman, the group’s director of policy and programmes, pointed out that "the eligibility criteria for the women's category as it is laid out in the policy polices the bodies of all women, and will not be enforceable without seriously violating the privacy and human rights of any athlete looking to compete in the women's category.”
Reacting to Australia’s four-time Olympic champion Cate Campbell expressing her support for the Fina policy, Australian swimmer Maddie Groves asked if she was “OK with ostracising an already maligned group”.
On Twitter she added: “There are already gender diverse people in swimming and I'm guessing they're not feeling very accepted right now. Shame on everyone that supported this discriminatory and unscientific decision.”
Concerns over fairness within the world of elite female swimming have been raised by the participation of American trans athlete Lia Thomas, the first known transgender swimmer to win the NCAA swimming title with a victory in the women's 500-yard freestyle.
In a Guardian interview, Thomas said: “Trans women competing in women’s sports does not threaten women’s sports as a whole. Trans women are a very small minority of all athletes. The NCAA rules regarding trans women competing in women’s sports have been around for 10-plus years. And we haven’t seen any massive wave of trans women dominating.”
Schuyler Bailar—American swimmer and first openly transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division I men’s team—criticised the policy on social media: “This is not about preserving fairness, it is not about protecting women's sports. It is about trying to exclude trans people and it continues the policing of women's bodies and sports, it continues the degradation and othering of trans people.”
With the escalation of the debate on the inclusion of trans people in elite sports, it is predicted that an increasing number of legislations and policies will follow Fina’s example, simultaneously raising concern amongst transgender advocates and putting at ease the mind of those who disapprove of trans women participating in sports.
By Anna Alandete
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