USRowing Denies Fairness for Female Athletes | Opinion
updated Gender Identity Policy on December 1. We are a group of former Olympic rowers, and we are enraged that USRowing would adopt a policy that so blatantly discriminates against female athletes in rowing.The updated policy permits males, with or without testosterone suppression, to compete in girls' and women's events.
Only at the collegiate and elite level has USRowing allowed any restrictions. At that level, male rowers competing in the women's category must comply with World Rowing's policy, which requires 12 months of continuous testosterone suppression at no greater than 5 nmol/L, twice the high end of the normal range for females.Science has unequivocally proven that testosterone suppression—even for years—does not erase the physiologic advantages that males have over females.
Every cell has a sex which influences all aspects of the body's development. It is not biologically possible to change sex at the cellular level, even with hormone therapy.
Suppressing testosterone, regardless of the degree, does not remove all the sex-based advantages that males possess, such as greater heart and lung size.
