The veto imposed by swimming after Lia Thomas’ controversial case is shaking the world order and will see other disciplines follow in FINA’s footsteps
World sport has been rocked by the historic ban on transgender athletes by the International Swimming Federation (FINA), whose example, after the restrictions also imposed by cycling, has already been followed by rugby. Due to the ban on transgender swimmers from participating in women’s competitions, athletics and football, among others, will sooner or later follow in their footsteps. Swimming was the first sport to prevent transgender people from participating with women “if they’ve gone through part of the male puberty process,” while studying the creation of a new category exclusively for people who don’t feel identified with their anatomical gender. .
What has been described as the “first step toward full integration” of transsexual athletes is the strong response to the controversial case of American swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly known as Will Thomas, who, after competing in the male category, where she achieved mediocre results. He changed gender two years ago to dominate the college exams for women in Pennsylvania and cause a huge controversy in the United States. Lia Thomas underwent mandatory treatment for testosterone suppression and to have the opportunity to share the pool with women, who until FINA’s unprecedented decision felt threatened by the raid of the young woman born in Texas 23 years ago .
“Despite the hormone suppressants she has been taking, Lia Thomas’s advantage in male puberty has not been sufficiently diminished according to NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) guidelines. That power doesn’t disappear overnight, or with a year of oppressors. Thomas dives into the water with an inherent advantage over the others,” wailed ‘Swimming World’ specialist media at the end of the year, before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially waived setting standards for all sports and abandoned their decision on transgender people in the hands of each world federation.
With votes for and against including these athletes in the categories based on their current gender, the rules of the game in world sport have changed, but the IOC has posted its profile and the first critics. “The IOC has fully taken its responsibility. How can individual federations in your country make different rules? They have to do the research and implementation… and that costs money. It’s impossible,” said former tennis player Martina Navratilova, a gay rights activist.
The case of transgender people transcends the sports world and also reaches the world of science, justice, when the alleged benefits that these athletes derive are equated with doping and human rights, with complaints of alleged discrimination against girls and women. with a different biological sex, have chosen the path of femininity. Two years before the 2024 Games in Paris, the other major Olympic sport, athletics, backed the swimming decision to ban transgender women (with 71.5% of the vote) from participating in women’s events. “Gender cannot trump biology and we will continue to review our regulations accordingly. We will follow the science,” said Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics (International Athletics Federation).
The legendary British ex-athlete has thus opened the door to a change in athletics regulations, betting on the “integrity of women’s sport”, over the “inclusion” of transgender athletes, with the foundations of his body already beaten by the precedent of the infamous case of Caster Semenya. “I have no doubt that testosterone is an important part of performance. Look at the nature of 12- or 13-year-old girls. I remember my daughters leaving the boys in their class, but as soon as they hit puberty, they became that gap bigger and bigger,” recalls Sebastian Coe. Also football, as recently announced by FIFA, will revise its rules for transgender players and guarantee that “many interested parties (medical, legal, scientific and human rights) will be taken into account”.
In principle, the IOC believes that “no athlete should be barred from competition on the assumption that they have an advantage because of their gender”, and the transgender guide prepared by the highest Olympic body has been criticized by sports scientists and physicians for being ” unfair to women’s sport At the previous Games in Tokyo, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, at the age of 43, became, at least officially, the first transsexual woman to compete in an Olympic event, after breaking another glass ceiling and, in theory, would have opened a new avenue in the world of sport that is now blocked. “I thank the IOC because I think it reaffirms its commitment to the principles of Olympism and to the idea of establishing that sport is something for everyone, inclusive and accessible,” said Hubbard after being knocked out after three failed attempts. In 2012 to begin his gender reassignment process, compete the he among men, under the name Gavin.
Source: La Verdad
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