Section by gender - Newspaper Kommersant No. 51 (7496) dated 03/25/2023

Section by gender - Newspaper Kommersant No. 51 (7496) dated 03/25/2023


The International Athletics Federation (World Athletics, WA) has banned transgender people, or rather women who were previously considered men, to compete in women's competitions if they changed their gender after puberty. In addition, WA has significantly tightened the rules for admission to women's tournaments of persons who have been identified with sexual developmental disabilities (DSD). It should be noted that recently more and more governing structures of world sports have spoken out in defense of women's sports in its natural sense and introduce certain restrictions on the participation of transgender people.

The Council of the International Federation of Athletics banned transgender women, that is, born men, from participating in competitions held under the auspices of the WA if they passed puberty as men. The leadership of the federation called this decision "protection of the future of women's sports." The new rules come into effect on March 31st.

WA President Sebastian Coe said he was well aware that the federation's decision would be controversial, but noted that WA is guided by "overarching principles" of fairness, and also takes into account the opinion of science regarding the advantage that men have over women in terms of strength, speed, endurance, etc.

“It is always difficult to make decisions when they affect the conflicting interests of different groups. But we proceed from the fact that, first of all, we must remain fair in relation to athletes. Ensuring the integrity of women's sport in this case prevails,” said Sebastian Coe. However, the WA president left little hope that the situation could change in the future. He said that a working group will be created in WA, which will monitor new research on the topic of transgender people and report to the leadership of the federation. “We don't say no forever,” said Sebastian Coe.

In addition to banning transgender people from playing in women's tournaments, the WA has tightened the rules for admitting people with sexual developmental disabilities (DSD) to them. The most famous of these is the two-time Olympic champion of Rio de Janeiro in 2016 Caster Semenya from South Africa, whom Pierre Weiss, who at one time held the post of General Secretary of WA, once called “a woman, but not 100%”. From now on, they will be able to participate in women's tournaments only if they have maintained blood testosterone levels below 2.5 nmol/l for two years (in the vast majority of women, testosterone levels are 0.12-1.79 nmol/l). The old rules were much more relaxed. The upper limit for testosterone was 5 nmol/l for 12 months. Yes, and they only concerned races at distances from 400 m to 1 mile. There was no control in other disciplines. Note that the same Semenya tried for several years to protest the restrictions imposed by WA, but in 2019 the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that women with DS of at least the variety that Semenya has have an undeserved advantage over ordinary women.

The problem of transgender penetration into women's sports has recently attracted more and more attention, which is a reaction to the natural protests of athletes who pay attention to the fact that they are actually forced to compete with men.

What is, for example, the story of Leah Thomas. Born William Thomas in college was considered a very mediocre swimmer, but then announced a gender change and in March 2022 became the winner of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women's championship in 500 yards (1 yard is equal to 0.9144 m) freestyle. Second, nearly two seconds behind, was Emma Veyant, the 2020 Games silver medalist in the 400m medley. Specifically, transgender people are required to provide evidence of testosterone control below 2.5 nmol/L since the onset of puberty. The International Football Federation (FIFA) is also planning to review its policy regarding the admission of transgender people. As for the most influential structure of world sports - the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it actually abstained from resolving the issue. The IOC has long adhered to the principle that transgender people must maintain testosterone levels below 10 nmol/L for the 12 months leading up to competition. But this rule was abolished after the 2022 Winter Olympics. Now the IOC proceeds from the fact that each federation should develop its own approach.

Alexander Petrov



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