Transgender athletes have condemned World Athletics’ exclusion of transgender women from elite female competitions, while the decision was welcomed by some sportswomen as a win for fairness.
Athletics’ governing body on Thursday voted to ban transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women’s events, citing a “need to protect the female category.”
Canadian cyclist Kristen Worley, a transitioned athlete who has legally challenged the gender policies of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), said the World Athletics decision was “disheartening and disappointing.”
Photo: Reuters
“What’s happening is the most vulnerable are being excluded from sport more for political reasons, and not based on science and research,” Worley said in an interview. “This has effects not just at the international levels, but consequently over communities across the globe, including communities in the United States.”
The decision follows a similar move by World Aquatics, the global governing body for swimming, to exclude transgender athletes from women’s categories last year.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the decision was made after consulting 40 member federations, coaches, athletes, transgender groups, UN experts and the IOC.
While some argue that going through male puberty gives transgender women physical advantages, supporters of transgender participation in sports say not enough research has been done into whether transgender women have any advantage.
Worley said the notion that transgender women athletes were dominating women’s sport was nonsense.
“I’m watching all the news groups put out images on Twitter with no images of transitioned athletes at the elite levels of the World Athletics because there aren’t any,” she said. “So this is purely a political move by Seb Coe and World Athletics to deal with the right-wing issues, political relationships and obviously potential sponsors that are funding World Athletics today.”
Ricki Coughlan, one of Australia’s first transgender athletes in professional running, said the ruling would embolden the “forces of hate” against transgender people.
“There’s no nice way of putting this,” she said. “The forces of hate that are out there that don’t want transgender people to exist in our society ... will take this as a win and will then say: ‘OK, let’s move onto the next thing.’”
Australia’s national athletics federation said it would abide by the decision, but retain its own guidelines for including transgender athletes in community-level sport.
New Zealand’s federation said the subject of transgender athletes was “a very sensitive topic,” and it needed time to digest and understand the new rules.
A number of elite women in athletics welcomed the decision, including British runner and Olympian Emily Diamond, who wrote “thank you for following the science” on Twitter.
“A big step for fairness and protecting the female category hopefully this will be the rule across all levels now, not just elite ranking events,” wrote Diamond, who won a 400m relay bronze medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Olympian and marathon runner Mara Yamauchi wrote: “Good news! Odd to celebrate something which is common sense.”
Save Women’s Sport Australasia, a group campaigning against transgender athletes in female sport, applauded the decision.
“Well, it’s not a ban, it just actually moves to protect the female category to female competitors and it was an excellent decision,” spokeswoman Ro Edge said. “So it’s really reassuring to hear president Seb Coe come out and say they’ve got to maintain fairness of female participation above all other considerations.”
Chinese pair Liang Wenbo and Li Hang on Tuesday received lifetime bans from snooker for match-fixing after a “heart-breaking” corruption scandal rocked the sport. In total, 10 Chinese players were handed bans of varying lengths by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA). Lu Ning, Zhao Xintong, Yan Bingtao, Chen Zifan, Zhang Jiankang, Bai Langning, Zhao Jianbo and Chang Bingyu were the other players suspended. Yan, the 2021 Masters champion, has been banned until December 2027 after his initial seven-and-a-half-year suspension was reduced following his early admissions and guilty plea. Former UK Championship winner Zhao Xintong is to serve a 20-month suspension, reduced
Iga Swiatek on Saturday said it would be “disrespectful” to her vanquished opponents to talk about her propensity for winning bagel sets after thrashing Wang Xinyu without losing a game at the French Open. The world No. 1 won 6-0, 6-0 in just 51 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier to reach the last 16. Across 57 matches in 17 Grand Slam appearances in her young career, Swiatek has already won 19 sets to love. Yet she knows how it feels to be on the wrong end of a bagel, having lost three sets at majors 6-0 herself, although all of those came across
UNSTOPPABLE: Jokic became the only player besides LeBron James in the past 25 years to reach double digits in points and assists in a Finals game half The Denver Nuggets on Thursday launched the first NBA Finals campaign in franchise history with a dominant 104-93 victory over the Miami Heat, propelled by yet another Nikola Jokic triple-double. Two-time Most Valuable Player Jokic scored 27 points with 10 rebounds and 14 assists to lead the Nuggets, who will try to double their advantage in the best-of-seven series when they host Game 2 tomorrow. Jamal Murray scored 26 points, handed out 10 assists and grabbed six rebounds for Denver, who led by 24 points in the third quarter and repelled the resilient Heat’s fourth-quarter challenge. Jokic and Murray became the second pair
SEMI-FINAL SHOWDOWN: Djokovic said that he is looking forward to facing off against Alcaraz after the Spaniard beat Tsitsipas, saying it should be his biggest challenge so far Beatriz Haddad Maia yesterday became the first Brazilian woman to make a Grand Slam semi-final in 55 years after beating Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur at Roland Garros. World No. 14 Haddad Maia came through against seventh-ranked Jabeur 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-1. The 27-year-old left-hander follows in the footsteps of seven-time major winner Maria Bueno who was the last Brazilian woman in the semi-finals of a major at the US Open 55 years ago. Bueno, who passed away in 2018, made the last four in Paris in 1966 before the advent of the Open era. “Ons is not easy to play against, you have to be
RSS