while other athletes also criticised the decision to allow Thomas to compete.A statement from FINA has now stated that transgender athletes will be able to compete only if ‘they can establish to FINA’s comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 (of puberty) or before age 12, whichever is later’.FINA President Husain Al-Musallam said: ‘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 will always welcome every athlete.
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.
I want all athletes to feel included in being able to develop ideas during this process.’UEFA doubles down on blame of Liverpool fans over Stade de France fiasco in senate shockMan Utd chiefs travel to Amsterdam to complete £40m signingMan City set asking price for Raheem Sterling after rebuffing Chelsea's initial valuationFormer British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies posted on Twitter: ‘I can’t tell you how proud I am of my sport @fina & @fina_president for doing the science, asking the athletes/coaches and standing up for fair sport for females.‘Swimming will always welcome everyone no matter how you identify but fairness is the cornerstone of sport.’For more stories like this, check our sport page.Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.