FINA to restrict trans women from elite races
Swimming’s world governing body, FINA, has voted to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women’s competitions and create a…
Swimming’s world governing body, FINA, on Sunday voted to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women’s competitions and create a working group to establish an “open” category for them in some events as part of its new policy.
The new policy, which takes effect Monday, will require transgender competitors to have completed their transition by age 12 to be able to compete in women’s competitions. The working group will spend the next six months to determine how to set up the new open category, FINA said.
“This is not saying that people are encouraged to transition by the age of 12. It’s what the scientists are saying, that if you transition after the start of puberty, you have an advantage, which is unfair,” James Pearce, the spokesperson for FINA president Husain Al-Musallam, told The Associated Press. “They’re not saying everyone should transition by age 11; that’s ridiculous. You can’t transition by that age in most countries, and hopefully you wouldn’t be encouraged to. Basically, what they’re saying is that it is not feasible for people who have transitioned to compete without having an advantage.”
The regulations would have a major impact on the career of Lia Thomas, who earlier this year became the first openly transgender woman to win a NCAA Division I women’s swimming title.
Thomas told Sports Illustrated in March that she wants to continue to compete after college, with the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials as a goal.
She declined to comment on the new policy to ESPN.
Pearce told the AP that the open competition category would most likely mean more events but that those details still need to be worked out.
“No one quite knows how this is going to work,” Pearce said. “And we need to include a lot of different people, including transgender athletes, to work out how it would work. So there are no details of how that would work. The open category is something that will start being discussed tomorrow.”
The decision was made during FINA’s extraordinary general congress on the sideline of the world championships in Budapest, Hungary, after members heard a report from a transgender task force made up by leading medical, legal and sports figures.
The policy was passed with a roughly 71% majority after it was put to the members of 152 national federations with voting rights that had gathered for the congress at the Puskas Arena.
FINA said it recognizes “that some individuals and groups may be uncomfortable with the use of medical and scientific terminology related to sex and sex-linked traits, [but] some use of sensitive terminology is needed to be precise about the sex characteristics that justify separate competition categories.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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