The effort for inclusion did not work. Trans female athletes do not cut corners in competitions

Transgender athletes will be subject to new recommended rules by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2021. The latter issued the Framework for Justice, Inclusion and Non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual variation. The last term refers primarily to intersex persons whose sexual characteristics do not match the medical norm for determining male or female.

The document contains non-binding rules and recommendations for sports organizations, urging them to emphasize a fair approach. “The aim is to support sports organizations in providing all sportsmen and women with pathways to inclusion in elite sport without discrimination based on gender identity or sexual variation,” reads the Framework’s general introduction on the IOC website.

The document describes the so-called principles that sports organizations and competitions should respect. Among them are, for example, inclusion, fairness or non-discrimination. Another principle is also an “evidence-based approach”. “No athlete should be excluded from competition solely on the basis of an unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to gender variation, physical appearance and/or transgender status,” the IOC writes.

But the group of 26 academics disagrees that, for example, the benefits of transgender women are conjecture. This year, Reuters drew attention to an article published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, which points out that male physical development can actually be an advantage.

The IOC’s instruction that federations “assume no advantage” because of an athlete’s transgender status ignores the permanent advantage anyone who has gone through male puberty has, experts say.

“We call on the IOC to review the recommendations of its framework to include a comprehensive understanding of the biological advantages of male development to ensure fairness and safety in women’s sports,” the group of academics wrote. According to academics, the inclusion of transsexual women in women’s sports categories cannot be combined with fairness in individual competitions, which the experts themselves described as an “unpleasant reality”.

Some sports allow trans athletes to participate conditional on demonstrating reduced testosterone levels. However, the academics claim in the article that the main advantage is male puberty, not male hormone levels.

“Studies show that transsexual women with suppressed testosterone maintain muscle mass, strength and other physical advantages compared to women; the male performance advantage cannot be eliminated by suppressing testosterone,” the experts describe.

However, male puberty is not something that will secure gold for trans athletes. During the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, the foreign tabloid media mainly focused on weightlifter Laurel Hubbard. The articles mostly warned of possible favoritism – but this did not prove to be the case. Hubbard finished in the final without a single successful attempt.

Although the IOC is trying to create a more “inclusive” environment, not all sports allow transgender women to compete. The world governing bodies of athletics, cycling, cricket, swimming or chess, for example, have tightened the conditions for elite women’s competitions in recent years. According to them, only women who have gone through the transition – i.e. the process of gender change – before the age of 12 can participate.

In practice, this means that, for example, swimmer Lia Thomas – who won the 500-yard swimming race in 2022 (roughly 457 meters, editor’s note) freestyle in the American university league NCAA – cannot start in Paris in the women’s category. The reason is the new rules of the World Aquatic Sports Federation.

Thomas responded to the 2022 decision by challenging the exclusion of transgender people from women’s competitions with a lawsuit at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They claim that the rules introduced in 2022 amount to discrimination. However, the World Aquatics Federation announced in 2023 that it intends to introduce an “open” category for anyone whose gender “does not match the sex they were born with,” reports Forbes.

Like Thomas, sprinter Halba Diouf or cyclist Emily Bridges cannot participate in the Olympics. “The only protection that transsexual women have is their right to live as they wish. And that’s being denied to us, we’re being persecuted,” Diouf told Reuters after World Athletics tightened its rules.

Some sports officials insist that transgender people pose a risk to women’s sports. According to them, the regulation protects the competitors themselves. According to experts who wrote their conclusions in an article for a Scandinavian magazine, the issue needs to be addressed with the female athletes themselves.

Although the International Olympic Committee recommends consultations regarding the inclusion of trans athletes, the meetings themselves only concern those affected by the restrictions. Not other women. “The IOC must take into account the rights and views of all stakeholders, including female athletes as the main stakeholders. Female athletes should be able to speak freely, without fear of retaliation or punishment,” the academics described.

For example, former Czech-American tennis player Martina Navrátilová stated on her account on the X social network that she does not agree with the inclusion of trans women in sports competitions. But there are also female athletes who find it paradoxical that a somewhat neglected women’s sport arouses controversy precisely because of “preserving a fair approach to women”.

“It’s especially frustrating when women’s sports are weaponized. Do we care about justice now? Do we care about women’s sports now?” wondered former American football player Megan Rapinoe in an interview with Time magazine. She added that she herself would welcome a transgender player in the team.