Elite swimming is the first sport to completely ban trans athletes from participating in women’s swimming competitions if they are going through male adolescence, FINA announced on Sunday. The International Sports Swimming Federation is creating an “open category” that will separate trans athletes to compete in their own category. Transgender swimmers like Leah Thomas, who is currently competing in the women’s swimming competition, have broken women’s records and caused a stir with many claiming that she has an unfair natural advantage for her athletes. The decision was made during FINA’s extraordinary general conference on the sidelines of the World Championships in Budapest, after members heard a report from a trans action team made up of leading medical, legal and sports figures. British Olympian Sharron Davies MBE, who has advocated for equality and fairness in sport and has spoken out against trans swimmers in women’s competitions, posted FINA news on Twitter. She wrote: “I can not tell you how proud I am of my sport @fina & @fina_president doing science, asking athletes / coaches and defending the fair sport for women. “Swimming will always welcome everyone, no matter how you identify with them, but justice is the cornerstone of sport.” Her tweet was in response to her own post from Friday, which read: “Once a man goes through adolescence, there will always be a great advantage in performance and bone structure. “Why do we ask women to accept competition with a known disadvantage before we even start? Women are not men with less testosterone. “Compete with your gender.” Davis lost gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics to East German swimmer Petra Snyder, who was later convicted of doping with performance-enhancing drugs, including testosterone. Elite swimming is the first sport to ban trans athletes from participating in women’s horse racing even if they are going through male adolescence, the International Sports Swimming Federation announced on Sunday. Leah Thomas, a transgender swimmer, is pictured The news was announced on Sunday afternoon by FINA President Husain Al-Musallam. “I do not want to tell any athlete that he can not compete at the highest level,” al-Moussalam told a conference today. “I will create a working group to create an open category in our meetings. “We will be the first federation to do that.” The new policy will require transgender contestants to have completed their transition by the age of 12 in order to participate in women’s competitions. Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies MBE, who has advocated for equality and justice in sport and has spoken out against trans-swimmers in women’s competitions, posted FINA news on Twitter Davis (pictured June 2022) lost gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics to East German swimmer Petra Snyder, who was later convicted of doping with performance-enhancing drugs, including testosterone. The policy was approved by a 71 percent majority after being introduced to members of 152 voting national federations gathered for the Puskas Arena conference. About 15 percent voted no to the eligibility policy in the men’s and women’s races, while 13 percent abstained. Transgender rights have become an important topic of discussion, as sports seek to balance participation while ensuring that there is no unfair advantage. The controversy erupted after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas became the first NCAA trans-champion in Class I history to win the women’s 500-yard freestyle earlier this year. Thomas swam for the Pennsylvania men’s team for three seasons before embarking on hormone replacement therapy in the spring of 2019. A wave of doctors has suggested that Lia Thomas – and other trans athletes – will always have an unfair advantage in some sports because they can not reverse adolescence when their biological male bodies are flooded with testosterone. Last month, Thomas said some “cisgender” women, a term used to describe someone whose gender identity was the same as when they were born, have more testosterone, larger arms and legs, and are taller than their competitors – so why ban when they are not. “I do not need anyone’s permission to be myself,” he said. She also said that anyone who says she is not allowed to compete as a woman is transphobic, whether or not she supports her right to go. You can not go halfway and be like “I support trans people but only to a certain extent”. “If you support trans women and they have met all the NCAA requirements, I do not know if you can say that.” Lia Thomas has only participated in American college swimming meetings so far, with her last college event being at the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) in March 2022, which is the governing body of U.S. college sports. But Thomas has since described her ambitions to compete in the Olympics. Speaking to ABC News in May, he said: “It was my goal to swim in the Olympics for a long time, and I would love to do it.” According to the FINA ban, Thomas could not participate in the women’s races, instead of participating in the new “open category” for swimmers whose gender identity is different from their birth sex. In an earlier interview with GB News, Davies said of the issue of transgender people in women’s sports: “We can not feel that we are leaving reality. If there is a race under 12 and there is a 15 year old who wants to “feel” his way under 12, you can not do that. “If you are a heavyweight boxer and you want to ‘feel’ your way in heavyweight, you can not do it. “If you are a competing master or you have a disability and you belong to a certain category in the Paralympic Games, you can not ‘feel’ your way to a better category where you have an advantage, and that is why they have men’s and women’s sport because otherwise only young people men would win everything. “Therefore, I do not believe that emotions could prevail over biological reality and reality.” The decision was made during FINA’s extraordinary general conference on the sidelines of the World Championships in Budapest, after members heard a report from a trans action team made up of leading medical, legal and sports figures. Swimmers pictured in the women’s 100m breaststroke semifinal on Sunday at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest “Trans women are not a threat to women’s sports.” In response to Sharron Davies’s tweet celebrating the news, many shared the same view. Someone wrote: “Finally someone in sports has some common sense. “Now other sports must follow suit.” Another said: “It should be in all amateur sports, not just elite sports”, and another added: “Now for the other sports governing bodies”. Sports scientist Ross Tucker wrote on Twitter: “We thank FINA for listening to women, your swimmers and coaches, and the science of creating a policy that respects women’s sports.”
