Commonwealth Games 2022: Australia is swimming’s next transgender battleground

With world sport looking to swimming to see how its attempt to accommodate the participation of transgender athletes, all eyes are set to be on Australia.

Australia is looming as the next battleground in swimming’s murky attempt to find a solution to one of the biggest dilemmas in world sport.

Swimming’s global leaders have already decided to ban transgender athletes from competing in elite women’s races, but there’s more to come.

FINA also promised to create an additional “open” division for trans athletes who don’t fit into the traditional gender categories, which is the unknown game changer that a lot of other sports are relying on before implementing their own policies.

How that works remains under wraps for now, but the world will get their first unveiling in Australia at the end of this year.

That’s because when Russia was stripped of hosting rights for this year’s short course world championships in reaction to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, FINA moved the event to Melbourne in December.

But in doing so, swimming’s world governing body also awarded something else to the Victorian capital, the annual FINA Congress.

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas (L) on top of the podium at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships this year. Picture: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire/Getty

That’s where the sport’s biggest decisions are made. And one of the biggest items of the lot is FINA’s plans to create an “open” division — something no sport has ever done before.

The new category will ensure that athletes who meet the eligibility criteria will be able to compete regardless to their sex, their legal gender or their gender identity.

It’s uncertain yet whether a final recommendation will be presented to the congress because officials are adamant any decision of this magnitude won’t be rushed, but News Corp understands the goal is for the all-important framework to be completed in time for the congress.

A working group, likely to involve industry-leading specialists from all over the world, including scientists, human rights advocates, lawyers and athletes, is currently being assembled.

It’s understood this group will meet for the first time in August.

FINA chief Brent Nowicki.

Given the issue is so politically divisive, the congress could easily become a flashpoint for protests, now that the first details are emerging.

In an interview with News Corp, FINA’s chief executive Brent Nowicki agreed to provide an exclusive insight into the planning taking place right now, including the surprise revelation about where the idea came from.

“It’s not an easy area to tackle, but I’ve started to think a little bit about how does it look? How does it feel? How will it be welcomed to the community,” he said.

“It was the athletes themselves that said trans individuals should be able to compete, we should find a space for them to compete, but we just must protect the competitive fairness of our male and female events.

“And that was steadfast. It wasn’t looking at everybody because we had people who were opposed to it as well. But certainly the open category resonated through a lot of athletes.”

FINA members, representing more than 150 countries, voted 71 per cent in favour of the initial policy banning transgender women, though the rules only apply at FINA sanctioned events, including the Olympics and world championships.

“We’ll probably reach out to athletes and see if they’re willing to work on a focus group and share their thoughts and opinions and technical officials especially to figure out how does it work on the pool deck and what are we looking at,” Nowicki said. “What’s that standard look like? Is it some kind of blending standard or what events do we do it in? All of our events? Some of our events?”

FINA’s mindless decision set to explode

The simmering discontent among leading swimmers at FINA’s mindless decision to hold a world championships in Qatar just before the 2024 Paris Olympics is threatening to boil over.

More top swimmers, including Australia’s two best-performed men, have joined other Olympic champions competing at the Commonwealth Games in calling on the sport’s world governing body to listen to their pleas and postpone the championships until 2025.

So far, their requests have fallen on deaf ears, with FINA’s hardline executives standing by their unpopular decision. But the resentment is growing and swimmers are preparing to take matters into their own hands.

Double Olympic champion Adam Peaty has already said he will boycott the world championships if they take place in early 2024. And the champion English breaststroker says he won’t be alone.

“I can‘t really see the bigger nations going just because the prep for the Olympics is so specific and you need that winter block,” Peaty said.

Zac Stubblety-Cook will prioritise the Olympics over the world championships. Picture: Getty Images

“So I’m not going to go and a lot of the British swim team probably won’t go.

“So how many world champions are going to be Olympic champions? Not many.”

Peaty’s teammate Tom Dean, the reigning 200m freestyle Olympic champion, said FINA needed to rethink its plans and consider the wellbeing of athletes.

“A world champs in the same year as the Olympics is not a good call from FINA. I don‘t believe that that’s the best approach to take,” Dean said.

“They need to review the calendar and say ‘everything got pushed back because of Covid and there’s nothing we can do about it now so let’s try and make it as normal as possible going forward to give athletes the best chance to perform at the next competition’, which is obviously the Olympics.”

Their views were backed by Australia’s two best male swimmers Elijah Winnington and Zac Stubblety-Cook.

Both won world titles in Budapest last month then added the Commonwealth Games this week, but said the double was taxing on their bodies and not conducive to producing their best results.

“I’m just not really sure that just because we’ve had to miss things because of Covid, that we always have to keep making them up,” Winnington said.

“I’m not really sure if FINA came out with the right decision. As some of the guys have said, ask the athletes what they would prefer to do because it is going to be pretty tough, especially in an Olympic year.”

Stubblety-Cook, the reigning Olympic, world and Commonwealth Games champion for 200m breaststroke, said Paris was obviously the No.1 priority for all the top swimmers.

“For me personally, I’ll obviously be focusing on the Olympics,” he said.

While national federations, including Australia say they won’t boycott the Doha championships in 2024, they’ve also said they won’t force their best swimmers to go — which will dilute the quality of competition.

A lot of their frustration centres around FINA’s lack of consultation with athletes over matters that impact their wellbeing.

At the same time, health experts are warning about the undue pressures being placed on elite athletes following a spike in suicides since the start of the global pandemic, FINA is planning to stage four world championships in four successive years.

Adam Peaty expects star swimmers to boycott the 2024 world championships. Picture: Getty Images

This includes the Doha championships in early 2024 — just five months before the Paris Olympics — then another in Russia in 2025, despite the outrage at Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Swimmers and coaches the world over want FINA to strip Russia of hosting rights and move the Doha edition from 2024 to 2025, but say no one is listening.

“Athletes should always have a say in all decisions made by their international governing bodies,” Dean said. “That’s true not just of swimming but all sports.

“It‘s something that in my talks with members of FINA, it’s something they want to see more of. But I think we’re holding out to see that actually come to fruition.”

Peaty — who was recently appointed to FINA’s athletes’ commission — said he would personally take the matter up with FINA’s executives if the right decision wasn’t made.

“There’s definitely more transparency now trickling down, but I think we need to consult athletes a bit more,” he said.

“I’m on the athlete committee now, so hopefully we can start to push what I’m going to push forward and see change.”

Originally published as Commonwealth Games 2022: Australia is swimming’s next transgender battleground