Qualifying for the Tokyo Olympic Games, Laurel Hubbarda New Zealand weightlifter, became the first transgender athlete to compete in sport’s biggest competition. Lia Thomas dreamed of participating in the Paris Games, but as a transgender athlete she will not be able to participate. The transgender swimmer will not be able to participate in the prestigious sports competition.
For three years, various sports federations have been questioning the place they want to give to transgender athletes in competitions, and in particular to trans women.
Transgender Athletes and the Paris Olympics: Where Are We Now?
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in recent years, less than 0.001% of Olympians have identified as transgender and/or non-binary athletes. But let’s rewind to 2021, when the IOC changed its rules to allow individual sports federations to set their own rules for the participation of transgender athletes.
With this new organization, Transgender athletes were quickly eliminated from the running for the Paris Olympics. In France, the former Minister of Sports, Amélia Oudéa-Castéra, did not want to decide on this issue, recalling that this decision is up to each international federation. Politically, no one is involved, which is why some federations take advantage of ignorance on the matter to disqualify transgender athletes.
In total it is a dozen Olympic sports that have restricted the participation of transgender athletes. Rowing, boxing, athletics, cycling, swimming, rugby and even cricket have banned transgender women from competing in female categories if they have reached puberty before they begin their transition, which is the vast majority of transgender athletes, as very few countries allow them to transition earlier. Triathlon, tennis and archery federations require testosterone levels to be kept within a defined limit. Other disciplines, such as badminton, will do so on a case-by-case basis. The International Gymnastics Federation has decided not to comment on the matter. Perhaps not the best decision…
Do trans women have a physical advantage?
The debate rages on. Those who oppose their inclusion generally support the idea that trans women, having reached male puberty, have a physical advantage over cisgender women. The reason? The impact of testosterone on their bodies and therefore a more developed bone density and greater strength than cisgender women, even after transitioning. They say they are defending above all “the protection of women’s sports”, but the The line between fairness and discrimination is sometimes (too) thin. Like the International Swimming Federation, which has created a unique category for transgender swimmers. This new category is far from being a major breakthrough, but rather exclusionary.
To deconstruct these models, numerous studies and scientific research have been conducted, despite the lack of knowledge on the effects of transition treatments on sports performance. From an IOC-funded study published last April, this emerged Transgender women were physically disadvantaged, for example in lung functioncompared to cisgender women. But this study was conducted on a small sample of people (75), which limited its scope.
In 2021, a British university even concluded that hormone therapy reduced strength, lean mass, and muscle area in trans women after 12 months. On the other hand, overall, after three years it is still higher than that of cisgender women. On the athletes side, very few are comfortable with the idea of transgender athletes competing alongside them in the women’s categories.
As a result, pioneers like Quinn, Alana Smith or even Lia Thomas will not be present at this 33rd edition. As for French athletes, sprinter Halba Diouf stopped dreaming of the Paris Olympics last March, when Sébastian Coe, president of the International Athletics Federation, announced the exclusion from national and international competitions of transgender athletes who have “experienced male puberty”. It is therefore impossible for the 21-year-old athlete to qualify for the Olympics because she is confined to the departmental level.
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Source: Madmoizelle
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
