But how and where to even begin when the answer requires finding the right balance between inclusion and fairness? Tim Heming reports\u2026<\/span><\/strong> Lia Thomas has rapidly become the most famous swimmer in US college history. For some, that represents a cause for celebration, a sign of a more enlightened and inclusive sporting world. For others, it\u2019s the latest blow to embattled women\u2019s sport that\u2019s fighting for its very survival.<\/span><\/p>\n That views are so polarised partly explains why emotions run so high, and any middle ground looks a long way off as governing bodies fumble over finding acceptable policies to accommodate trans athletes in traditional male-female competition.<\/span><\/p>\n For much of the past year that seems to be what the National Collegiate Athletic Association has done in the case of Thomas. Formerly William Thomas, the University of Pennsylvania student transitioned from male to female, completed the 12 months of hormone suppression treatment required before swimming competitively in college meets as a trans woman. While William Thomas was a middle-ranked collegiate swimmer for three years, Lia became the fastest woman freestyler in college sport.<\/span><\/p>\n The NCAA shifted uncomfortably at the predictable backlash. In January, its governing body, USA Swimming reduced the acceptable level of testosterone in the blood for trans women swimmers from under 10 nanomoles per litre to under 5 nmol\/L and extended the requirement to be at this lower level to three years before competing. <\/span><\/p>\n In addition \u2013 and seemingly in direct conflict with a new International Olympic Committee (IOC) framework issued in November \u2013 any trans woman swimmer would have to show they didn\u2019t have a lasting advantage from their male biology. <\/span><\/p>\n At time of press, this was subject to threat of legal action by the university should Thomas be barred from competition. Yet while Thomas is caught in the media crosshairs, so too are the cis female Penn swimmers on her team. \u201cLia swimming was a non-negotiable,\u201d an anonymous Penn swimmer told the Washington Examiner. \u201cThe school made it seem like they were trying to say, \u2018Don\u2019t even bother to come to us with your concerns or anything like that because we\u2019re not going to help you.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Transgender<\/strong><\/p>\n Your experienced gender is different than the one you were assigned at birth.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Transition<\/strong><\/p>\n Transition, for a trans person, could start and end with coming out as a new gender \u2013 or it could mean a life of gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy and surgery. Transition is a process, and it\u2019s different for every trans person. No one needs to complete a specific set of steps to have transitioned.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Cisgender<\/strong><\/p>\n Your experienced gender aligns with the gender you were assigned at birth.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Sex<\/strong><\/p>\n Your sex is the biological combination of your bodily organs, hormones, and chromosomes. Sex and gender are associated, but not the same nor interchangeable.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> The Thomas case is a microcosm of a far bigger issue that transcends sports, where defenders of cis women\u2019s rights argue that inclusion of trans women into society comes at far too high a cost. In the case of sport, it\u2019s chiefly the right to fair and at times, safe, competition.<\/span><\/p>\n While Penn University\u2019s women swimmers have been cautioned against speaking out, others have been more forthright in their views, including Britain\u2019s 1980 Olympic medallist, swimmer Sharron Davies. \u201cSex is a biological immutable reality,\u201d Davies explained to the Brick Session podcast. \u201cIf someone wants to express themselves in a feminine or masculine way they are absolutely entitled to and should be treated with the same human rights as anybody else. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHowever, biological sex exists and when it comes to sport, which is based on physiology, it has to be accommodated, understood and accepted as the reality. The reason we have categories for male and female is because if we didn\u2019t females would win nothing. I don\u2019t understand how, all of a sudden, we can sweep this away.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Can an acceptable solution be found? Trans athletes\u2019 participation isn\u2019t new in sport, but is more topical due to the high-profile presence of individuals such as New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard who competed in Tokyo 2020, Canadian track cyclist Veronica Ivy or Jamaican-American track athlete, CeC\u00e9 Telfer. <\/span><\/p>\n To understand the bind, the evolving stance of the IOC is a good place to start. In 2003, it adopted a policy to allow post-operative, gender-transitioned athletes to compete in the Olympics if they could provide legal proof of their completed sex change. <\/span><\/p>\n In 2016, the IOC dropped the requirement for transgender athletes to undergo surgery, and having retired from elite competition, trans woman cyclist Kristen Worley won a landmark court ruling in a Canadian court to force a rethink on the process and potentially damaging medication trans athletes were forced to take to compete. Worley provides powerful testimony of her own experience.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was the first athlete to be \u2018gender tested\u2019 under measures implemented in the IOC\u2019s 2003 Stockholm Consensus \u2013 a humiliating and invasive medical examination that amounted to a sanctioned sexual and psychological trauma,\u201d she wrote. \u201cIn 2016, I sued several of sport\u2019s governing bodies \u2013 including the IOC, the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Cycling Union, Cycling Canada and Ontario Cycling \u2013 for violating my human rights. They only wanted to hit the survivor with a bigger hammer.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n In November 2021, the IOC went one step further, reviewing its procedures again and produced a framework for fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination based on gender identity and sex variations. In a 180\u00b0 turn it decreed there should be \u201cno presumption of advantage\u201d as far as trans athletes competing in sport is concerned. <\/span><\/p>\n The IOC moved to a place of stewardship from leadership, putting the onus on individual sports to find a solution. But while the framework wasn\u2019t binding, those individual sports also cherish their Olympic status. Net result? The federations now feel compromised<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n A joint statement of the International Federation of Sports Medicine and European Federation of Sports Medicine Associations criticised the framework for being drafted from a human rights perspective without enough consideration for medical and scientific issues. <\/span><\/p>\n For sports that already had polices in place for the inclusion of trans and women athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD), this presented a quandary. The potential consequence was either to exclude all transgender athletes on the grounds of advantage \u2013 which would be unlawful in many countries and contrary to the Olympic charter \u2013 or allow self-identification that essentially equates to no eligibility rules, giving sport questionable meaning. <\/span><\/p>\n This is the position World Triathlon finds itself in. \u201cWe are following the discussions among the international federations, including the position of some like World Athletics, UCI [cycling] and FISA [rowing] that have already updated the rules reducing the testosterone limits to 5 nmol\/L for trans women,\u201d Sergio Migliorini, chair of the World Triathlon Medical Committee, says. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe have a working group to update our rules during 2022 to have a fair competition between transgender and cisgender [athletes]. We hope that the IOC framework will be improved considering the medical and scientific aspects.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As Migliorini says, testosterone levels are being used as the objective biomarker, but their worth is contested by advocates on both sides of the debate. Australian athlete and transgender advocate Kirsti Miller and South African sports scientist Ross Tucker, who advises World Rugby and UK Sport on its trans inclusion policies, could hardly be further apart in their views. <\/span><\/p>\n But one thing they do agree on is that testosterone is a poor measure to assess the differences in performance. The typical adult male might have testosterone levels of 8-30nmol\/L, and an adult female more likely to be in the 0.5-3nmol\/L range. But Tucker says the fixation on testosterone levels for performance is wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThose such as Lia Thomas, who have gone through puberty as a biological male, benefit from testosterone and other male hormones that have a significant performance effect by increasing muscle mass, strength, the size of the heart and lungs and reducing body fat,\u201d he told the BBC. \u201cWhen\u00a0 <\/span>sport was first confronted with this challenge they looked at testosterone as the cause of the difference \u2013 and thought it might be the solution, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But it doesn\u2019t seem to be. Tucker cites studies that track trans women performance over 12 months where drugs are administered to bring testosterone to within the female range. \u201cThey universally show the same thing,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you have an initial difference in muscle strength of say 30-50%, studies suggest lowering testosterone\u00a0 <\/span>reduces it by between 5-9%. Skeletal mass and bone density do not change, and muscle volume and mass come down by 5%.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n His point is that the testosterone has already done the work in puberty to give the biological male an advantage \u2013 and a snapshot of testosterone in later life proves very little. He draws on the analogy of height in basketball and VO2 max in marathon runners. Having it in abundance is almost a prerequisite, but once you\u2019re at the elite level other factors such as skill, dexterity and decision-making come into play.<\/span><\/p>\n Miller, who represented her country at modern pentathlon, returned to sport in 2013 after transitioning. \u201cWe must stop comparing how long it takes to minimise testosterone. It\u2019s totally irrelevant,\u201d she told the Trans Porter podcast. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe only science with testosterone is it makes absolutely no sense to have it as a female or a male determinant in sports. Before we transition as XY trans women, around 25% of us would naturally have lower testosterone levels under 10nmol\/L. Twenty-five percent of elite male athletes in sports like weightlifting have levels below 5nmol\/L naturally. But I was 30nmol\/L. There\u2019s no correlation between me being more athletic at 30 than this person at 5. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo blanket ban any individual doesn\u2019t make any sense. Why would Kirsti have had to spend two years on the side-lines to enter into equestrian as a female? Or archery? It never made any sense to have every sport the same. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe IOC new framework is a paradigm shift. Each individual can only be treated on their own merits which is what I believe is the way forward. I can see it not only benefiting trans women, but intersex women and cis women with high testosterone. I believe this is a massive step forward for Miller cites Australian Rules Football as an organisation that has adopted a policy where a trans person has to undergo physical tests to measure speed, strength, endurance and physique before deciding if they can take the field. \u201cThis is what every sport is going to have to do,\u201d she adds. \u201cThey can\u2019t just say trans girls have an advantage without looking at all the people in their sport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She also issues a warning for sports that rail against the IOC policy, such as World Athletics, formerly the IAAF. \u201cThe IAAF is now leaving itself open to legal challenges at CAS [Court of Arbitration for Sport] and also in the courts outside of sport. All it\u2019s going to take is one trans athlete who is post-operative and says it\u2019s unhealthy to have 5 nmols\/L. It\u2019s been proved beyond doubt that androgen deprivation is a very serious illness and that\u2019s what they\u2019ve forced athletes like me, and Caster [Semenya] and other XY intersex athletes to do. We\u2019ve all become unwell. The IOC have been smart on this. Other sports choose to ignore it at their peril.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Where do we go from here? More studies are being undertaken to quantify relative sporting performance of trans women in competition, but these will take years to complete. For now, those saying biological males have a performance advantage can simply point to the record books in terms of male versus female competition. <\/span><\/p>\n Yet, it could be argued that trans women, while adhering to testosterone suppression rules that have been in place, have not thus far dominated women\u2019s sports. As Kristen Worley stresses, transitioning may place such mental and physical demands on an individual that they aren\u2019t in any health to compete at an elite level, particularly over the long term. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe XY endocrine system collapses without testosterone, whereas the XX endocrine system doesn\u2019t,\u201d she explains. Worley says the subject has been \u201cweaponised\u201d in the press, and fears \u2013 citing her own example \u2013 that the longer an XY individual is forced to suppress testosterone beyond a natural level, the more long-term health problems are likely. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAndrogen deprivation is an extremely dangerous medical condition unique to the XY karyotype and is known medically as hypogonadism. Outside of women\u2019s sport it is treated with testosterone supplements and intervention to elevate blood levels to increase health and wellness.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Those passionate about the debate tend to come down heavily on one side or the other. <\/span>Former British marathon runner Mara Yamauchi said on Twitter: \u201cThe impact of just one trans woman in the female category is potentially massive: females excluded, records, money, qualification, scholarships, girls looking on thinking sport is not for me\u2026\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Sharron Davies suggests there should be a protected women\u2019s category and an \u2018open\u2019 category for everybody else. For some inclusion trumps all and trans woman should be able to compete with cis women. Kristen Worley doesn\u2019t have all the answers either, but encourages individual sports to \u201cdo the work\u201d to try and find their own solutions<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n Top image credit:<\/strong> Nigel Roddis\/Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section><\/body><\/html>\n By Tim Heming Published: Monday, 04 April 2022 at 12:00 am World Triathlon has yet to enter the transgender-athlete-in-sport debate, but as more sports face high-profile examples of trans women transitioning and achieving resounding victories, it\u2019s time for action and leadership in a sport revered for its equality. But how and where to even begin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12979,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"12"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/04\/exploring-the-debate-on-transgender-athletes-in-sport.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/04\/exploring-the-debate-on-transgender-athletes-in-sport-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/04\/exploring-the-debate-on-transgender-athletes-in-sport-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/04\/exploring-the-debate-on-transgender-athletes-in-sport-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/04\/exploring-the-debate-on-transgender-athletes-in-sport-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/04\/exploring-the-debate-on-transgender-athletes-in-sport-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/04\/exploring-the-debate-on-transgender-athletes-in-sport-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Tim Heming Published: Monday, 04 April 2022 at 12:00 am World Triathlon has yet to enter the transgender-athlete-in-sport debate, but as more sports face high-profile examples of trans women transitioning and achieving resounding victories, it\u2019s time for action and leadership in a sport revered for its equality. But how and where to even begin…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/12978"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}LGBTQIA+ terms<\/strong><\/h4>\n
The right to fair competition<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>No presumption of advantage<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>World Triathlon\u2019s position<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Testosterone is not the solution<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Physical tests<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
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