The UK’s Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) has updated its rules to bar transgender women from competing in national and inter-club female competitions, the governing body said on Wednesday.
The LTA said that while it was committed to making the sport welcoming and inclusive for everyone, it had a responsibility to ensure competition was fair.
“It is clear that tennis and padel are gender-affected sports — the average man has an advantage when playing against the average woman,” it said in a statement.
“This includes longer levers with which to reach and hit the ball and increased cardio-vascular capacity means being able to get around the court more easily,” it said.
“The current broad consensus, including the conclusion of the review carried out by the [UK’s] Sports Councils Equality Group, is that this advantage is likely to be retained to a significant degree in trans women, making competition potentially unfair,” it added.
The LTA said the revised policy would come into effect on Jan. 25 and would cover “specified competitions” involving individuals from different clubs, venues or counties up to national-level events.
“This policy helps ensure there is a common national standard for all these competitions which is fair,” it said.
International events such as Wimbledon, Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tournaments held in the UK and International Tennis Federation events are out of the scope of the LTA’s rules.
Non-specified events within clubs, ranging from social play to club championships, would be able to be fully inclusive with venues able to determine their own policy.
The WTA Tour Gender Participation Policy permits transgender women to participate if they have declared their gender as female for a minimum of four years, have lowered testosterone levels and agree to testing procedures.
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