The World Swimming Authority approved a new gender mainstreaming policy on Sunday, after 71.5% of FINA member federations voted in favor of the FINA 2022 Extraordinary General Congress.
The new gender mainstreaming policy, due to enter into force on 20 June 2022, states that transgender male-to-female athletes will only be allowed to compete in the women’s categories in FINA competitions if they pass before the age of 12 or before reaching the second stage of Tanner’s pubertal scale.
The policy also says that athletes who have previously used testosterone as part of hormone therapy from women to men will be eligible to compete in women’s competitions only if testosterone has been used for less than a year in total. e. are performed during puberty and serum testosterone levels return to pre-treatment levels.
As a result of the vote, FINA said it would set up a new working group to develop open-ended events for athletes who do not meet the eligibility criteria of the governing body for men or women.
FINA monitors water competitions in swimming, water polo, diving, artistic swimming and open water swimming and high diving.
“We need to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also need to protect the fairness of our events, especially in the women’s category of FINA competitions,” said FINA President Hussein Al-Musalam. “FINA will always welcome every athlete. Creating an open category will mean that everyone has the opportunity to compete at the elite level. This has not been done so far, so FINA will have to lead. I want all athletes to feel involved in the ability to develop ideas during this process. ”
In November 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued its framework for fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination based on gender identity and gender variation, stating that no athlete should be excluded from the competition on the basis of gender. and rejected the idea that the testosterone proxy was enough to be excluded from the category of women.
A few months later, in January 2022, the International Federation of Sports Medicine and the European Federation of Sports Medicine Associations issued a joint statement of position challenging parts of the IOC’s position.
FINA says it has responded by setting up a working group to “review the best available statistical, scientific and medical evidence on gender differences in sports performance and any related male-based advantage” and use the information to establish eligibility criteria for transgender athletes. .
The working group consists of a group of athletes, which according to FINA includes transgender athletes and coaches, a group on science and medicine, and a group on legal and human rights.
The debate over transgender women in swimming came into the spotlight when University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas, who started on the school’s men’s swimming team in 2017, eventually joined UPenn’s women’s team in 2020.
During her transition in 2019, the NCAA required transgender athletes to have one year of hormone replacement therapy in order to be approved for competition.
In February, 16 members of the University of Pennsylvania’s swimming team sent a letter to the University and the Ivy League asking them not to challenge NCAA’s new policies for transgender athletes, which would prevent Thomas and other transgender athletes from competing. In the letter, they claim that Thomas had an “unfair advantage” and say they support the transition of her sex outside the pool, but not necessarily in it.
Despite the reaction, Penn Athletics and the Ivy League maintained their support for the transgender swimmer, and more than 300 current and former swimmers signed their names in an open letter defending her ability to compete.
As a swimmer on the women’s team, Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle race in March.
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