The swimming’s world governing body, Fina, voted to bar transgender women from elite female competitions if they experienced any part of male puberty.
The decision was decided by 71% of the vote of 152 national federations at the world championships in Budapest. It follows a report from a Fina scientific panel finding trans women to have retained significant advantage over cisgender female swimmers, even after reducing testosterone levels through medication.
Fina said that male-to-female transgender athletes could now compete in the women’s category only provided they did not experience any part of male puberty.
The puberty cannot exceed Tanner Stage 2 [which marks the start of physical development] or could not have occurred after age 12. Fina president Husain al-Musallam said that ‘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 has however promised to create a working group to establish an open category for trans women in some events as part of its new policy. This has not done before, but the Fina president said this would mean everyone has the opportunity to compete at elite levels.
Swimming is now the second Olympic governing body to take such a vote after World Rugby in 2020. Other sports have used testosterone limits as a basis for allowing trans women to compete in women’s categories.
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