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Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who smashed women’s records this year, will be banned from competing against biological women in international events after the world swimming’s governing body announced on Sunday that it is barring transgender athletes who went through male puberty.
FINA, the international federation sports federation for swimming, announced on Sunday that it is changing its policies so that transgender women can only compete in the organization’s women’s races if they have completed their transition by the age of 12.
They will then have to prove to the federation that they have continuously suppressed their testosterone levels since that time.
To accommodate the transgender athletes, though, FINA is setting up an ‘open category’ for transgender athletes to compete against one another at events including the World Aquatics Championships, World Swimming Championships, and Swimming World Cup.
A working group will spend the next six months to determine how the ‘open category’ would operate.
‘We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,’ FINA President Husain Al-Musallam said in a statement.
But such a policy would prevent Thomas from competing in the international events that would raise her standing in international swimming and potentially land her a place at the Olympics – which she said in a recent interview she would like to compete at in the future.
Her quick rise to the top of the women’s charts, though, has caused an uproar across the United States, with many arguing that she has an unfair physical advantage over her fellow competitors.
Elite swimming is the first sport to ban transgender athletes from women’s races even if they went through male puberty, the international sports federation for swimming announced Sunday. Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer, is pictured
The decision to ban transgender athletes from FINA events was made during the federation’s extraordinary general congress as the world championships take place in Budapest.
Members of the organization heard from a transgender task force comprising leading medical, legal and sports figures, which first convened to discuss the issue after the International Olympic Committee urged individual sports federations to create guidance on transgender athletes in November.
At the time, the IOC urged the federations to shift their focus from individual testosterone levels, and called for evidence to prove when a performance advantage existed.
Husain Al Musallam, the president of FINA, announced the new policy on Sunday
The experts concluded in their policy that there needs to be eligibility standards based on biological sex, writing: ‘Without eligibility standards based on biological sex or sex-linked traits, we are very unlikely to see biological females in finals, on podiums on in championship positions.’
As the scientists explained, biological males see their testosterone levels increase 20 fold during puberty, while the levels remain low in biological women during puberty – often around the age of 12.
‘A biological female athlete cannot overcome that advantage through training or nutrition. Nor can they take additional testosterone to obtain the same advantage, because testosterone is a prohibited substance under the World Anti Doping Code.’
The policy was passed with a 71 percent majority after it was put to the members of 152 national federations with voting rights who had gathered for the congress at the Puskas Arena.
Around 15 percent voted no to the policy on eligibility in the men’s and women’s competition categories, while 13 percent abstained.
Husain Al-Musallam, president of FINA, then announced the news on Sunday afternoon.
‘I do not want any athlete to be told they cannot compete at the highest level,’ Al-Musallam told a congress of his organization today.
‘I will set up a working group to set up an open category at our meets.
‘We will be the first federation to do that.’
And following the news, Olympic swimmer Jessica Hardy Meichetry thanked the organization for its decision, while Ross Tucker, the co-host of the Science of Sports podcast tweeted: ‘Thank you FINA for listening to women, your own swimmers and coaches, and to science in creating a policy that respects women’s sport.’
Lia Thomas appearing on Good Morning America last month where she said she hopes to swim for America in the Olympics
Transgender rights has become a major talking point as sports seek to balance inclusivity while ensuring there is no unfair advantage.
The debate intensified after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender NCAA champion in Division I history after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle earlier this year.
Thomas swam for the Pennsylvanian men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in spring 2019.
A wave of doctors suggested Lia Thomas – and other trans female athletes – will always have an unfair advantage in some sports because they cannot undo puberty, when their biological male bodies were flooded with testosterone.
They say that one or even four years of hormonal therapy is not enough to reverse what happens to the male teenage body.
‘There are social aspects to sport, but physiology and biology underpin it. Testosterone is the 800-pound gorilla,’ Michael J. Joyner, the Mayo Clinic doctor, said in an interview with The New York Times.
He added on Good Morning America: ‘Body size, hand size, foot size, bone density [are all factors] but the main thing is the interactions of exercise training and muscle.
‘I think that evidence so far would suggest a period of a year, two, three or even four years [of hormone therapy] is insufficient.’
The decision was made during FINA’s extraordinary general congress on the sidelines of the world championships in Budapest after members heard a report from a transgender task force comprising leading medical, legal and sports figures. Swimmers pictured at the Women’s 100m Breaststroke Semi Final on Sunday at the Budapest 2022 FINA World Championships
But last month, Thomas shrugged off the concerns about her apparently unfair advantage.
She said some ‘cisgender’ women – a term used to describe someone whose gender identity is the same as the one they were given at birth – have more testosterone, bigger hands and feet, and are taller than their competitors.
Thomas also insisted insisted that she did not transition to perform better in the league tables, explaining: ‘Trans people don’t transition for athletics. We transition to be happy and authentic and to be ourselves.
‘Transition to get an advantage is not something that factors into our decisions,’ she said.
‘I don’t need anybody’s permission to be myself,’ she said.
She also said anyone who says she isn’t allowed to compete as a woman is transphobic, regardless of whether or not they support her right to transition.
‘You can’t go halfway and be like “I support trans people but only to a certain point.”
‘If you support transwomen and they’ve met all the NCAA requirements, I don’t know if you can say something like that.’
‘Trans women are not a threat to women’s sport.’
Lia Thomas has broken a number of records in women’s swimming for the NCAA
She has caused controversy, with experts claiming she has an ‘unfair’ advantage because she went through male puberty
The news comes just days after the International Cycling Union tightened rules for transgender athletes in a benchmark ruling.
Trans competitors will now have to wait longer to compete after transitioning between genders under the UCI’s ruling, which doubled the period from 12 months to two years.
The body also announced it is halving the maximum testosterone level permitted for trans women to compete in the female category.
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