Trans Athletes Effectively Banned From Women’s Swimming Events
FINA, announced a ban on trans women athletes from competing in women’s events if they did not transition by 12.FINA’s policy starts Monday, according to a copy of the new regulation.Members at the body's congress in Budapest, Hungary voted with a little over 70 percent supporting the new policy after a presentation from medical and legal experts and two athletes Cate Campbell and Summer Sanders, who FINA said supported the regulation.The three groups had been collaborating to create the policy after the International Olympic Committee set out recommendations examining the “advantages” of trans athletes, according to the FINA.
The IOC had discouraged the “reliance on testosterone” levels.“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,” James Pearce, a spokesperson for FINA president Husain Al-Musallam, told the Associated Press.Pearce noted that there are no trans women who compete at the top in international swimming.The swimming body’s new policy also included a possible “open competition” category.
It said a working group would be put together to determine how best to set the category up.“No one quite knows how this is going to work.
