The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday said that no athlete should be excluded from competition on the grounds of a perceived unfair advantage due to their gender as it released a new framework on transgender inclusion.
No athlete should be excluded based on an “unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status,” the IOC said.
However, the governing body added that it was not in a position to issue regulations that define eligibility criteria for every sport, leaving it up to federations to determine if an athlete is at a disproportionate advantage.
Photo: AFP
Ruling some athletes ineligible in some sports is still expected with safety noted as a specific issue for combat and contact sports.
“The framework is not legally binding. What we are offering to all the international federations is our expertise and a dialogue, rather than jumping to a conclusion,” IOC Athletes’ Department director Kaveh Mehrabi said. “This is a process that we have to go through with each federation on a case-by-case basis and see what is required.”
The 10-point document is to be rolled out after the Beijing Winter Games next year, replacing the guidelines issued in 2015.
It follows years of consultation with medical and human rights experts and, since 2019, athletes directly affected to help draft guidelines promoting fairness and inclusion.
It is published after the Tokyo Olympic Games where the first openly transgender athlete, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, competed at the Games and defending 800m champion Caster Semenya is among track athletes with intersex conditions and naturally high testosterone levels excluded from their events.
The new framework also moves away from the old policy that said transgender athletes would be allowed to compete provided their testosterone levels were below a certain limit for at least 12 months before their first competition.
The IOC also said sex testing and “invasive physical examinations” used to verify an athlete’s gender were “disrespectful” and “potentially harmful.”
“We really want to make sure that athletes are not pressured or coerced into making a harmful decision about their bodies,” IOC head of human rights Magali Martowicz said.
“Athletes should be allowed to compete but unfair advantage needs to be regulated,” said the IOC, which plans to help fund research into elite performance by transgender and intersex athletes.
“We have not found the solution to this big question,” IOC spokesman Christian Klaue said. “Clearly this is a topic that will be with us for a long time.”
Additional reporting by AP
Taiwan’s double world champion Lin Yu-ting lost her bronze medal at the International Boxing Association (IBA) Women’s World Boxing Championships after she failed to meet eligibility criteria, the governing body of amateur boxing said yesterday. The IBA did not elaborate on Lin’s disqualification. Bulgarian Svetlana Kamenova Staneva, who lost to Lin in the under-57kg quarter-finals, was awarded the bronze medal. Algeria’s Imane Khelif was also disqualified hours before her gold medal bout. The 23-year-old was scheduled to meet Yang Liu in the 66kg division final, but Thailand’s Janjaem Suwannapheng, who lost to Khelif in the semi-finals, would fight the Chinese instead. “A boxer from Algeria
Riku Miura and Ryuichi Kihara yesterday said they wanted to inspire a new generation after becoming Japan’s first ever figure skating pairs world champions. The Japanese duo survived a late slip to hold off Americans Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier for the gold in front of an expectant crowd in Saitama, north of Tokyo. The win gave Miura and Kihara an incredible season sweep, the pair having already claimed the NHK Trophy, Skate Canada, Grand Prix final and Four Continents titles. Kihara said he hoped their latest win would usher in a new era of Japanese pairs success. “I would love it if boys
Retired Formula One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered by a Brazilian court to pay more than US$950,000 in “moral damages” for making racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton. The 70-year-old Brazilian had referred to seven-time champion Hamilton as “neguinho,” a racially offensive term that means “little black guy,” in 2021. In another interview, Piquet used racist and homophobic language. The court in Brasilia on Friday ordered Piquet to pay 5 million (US$952,998) reals “in collective moral damages, to be allocated to funds for the promotion of racial equality and against discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ community.” The charges were filed by several
FOUL MOOD: Suns coach Monty Williams said that there had been a pattern of unfair officiating against his team after the Lakers shot 46 free throws to 20 Anthony Davis on Wednesday had 27 points and nine rebounds in the Lakers’ 122-111 victory over the Phoenix Suns, who were furious with the game’s large free-throw disparity favoring Los Angeles. Suns coach Monty Williams gave just one answer before leaving his post-game news conference, criticizing the game officials and describing what he called a pattern of unfair officiating against his team in recent games. The Lakers shot 46 free throws to the Suns’ 20, outscoring Phoenix by 21 points at the line. “Where do you see a game with 46 free throws for one team?” Williams said. “That’s just not right. I
RSS