Olympians applaud FINA trans swimming ban

A ban on transgender swimmers from women-only races has been hailed around the world as the ‘best decision’.

Emily Seebohm says the decision is ‘as fair as it can be. Our sport is welcoming to all ­athletes wanting to be involved and I think that is why this open category will be very good’. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

An international ban on transgender swimmers from women-only races has been hailed by Olympians in Australia and around the world as the “best decision”, and is a move that may tighten gender rules in a range of Olympic sports.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) banned trans swimmers from a raft of global elite competitions – following ­controversial successes in women’s races by swimmers such as American Lia Thomas – while opening the door for “open” ­categories for trans people to compete in.

One of the international ­activists responsible for the push, triple US Olympian swimmer Nancy Hogshead-Makar, has called the FINA decision a tipping point for all other sporting bodies grappling with whether to ban transgender people from women-only events.

But trans athletes have decried the FINA ban as discriminatory and the world soccer body is set to move in a different direction, ­lowering testosterone requirements for players.

Australian Olympian and triple gold-medallist Emily Seebohm was “happy that a decision has been made” and said she felt FINA had struck the right balance between fairness and inclusion. “I think this is the best decision that could have come,” Seebohm told The Australian on Monday.

“I think it is as fair as it can be. Our sport is welcoming to all ­athletes wanting to be involved and I think that is why this open category will be very good.

“It is hard because we don’t want to make anyone unhappy, I don’t think anyone sets out for that.

“This is just now the rule we have to live with and we have to do it the best way we can to make everyone feel supported, safe and included in this sport.”

Swimming is not alone to have hardened its rules around trans women athletes.

In just the past week cycling’s ruling body, the UCI, moved to strengthen its eligibility criteria for the female category, by implementing a tougher restriction on testosterone levels for trans women.

World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe recently told The Weekend Australian that his sport would always “prioritise fairness” and would not hesitate to review their transgender policies if they felt the “integrity” of women’s sport was at risk.

But while some sporting ­leaders move towards stricter rules, in other women’s sports the ­female category remains in a state of flux.

The International Olympic Committee transgender framework released last November said national sports bodies were responsible for their trans policies but concluded that they should not assume that trans women ­athletes had an inherent advantage over females.

Ms Hogshead-Makar – a civil rights lawyer who won three gold and one silver at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics – said that, for now, swimming had set the correct benchmark for other sports ­worldwide.

Ms Hogshead-Makar has ­lobbied alongside tennis great Martina Navratilova, through their Women’s Sport Policy working group, for the protection of the “integrity” of women’s sport.

Ms Hogshead-Makar had criticised the policies that allowed trans woman Thomas to compete and win at the college swimming championships in the US in the female category. Thomas was aiming to compete at the Olympics.

Mr Hogshead-Makar called FINA’s move a watershed ­moment.

“Swimming is one of the first major sports to push back against the trans rights advocates who are trying to argue against biology,” she said.

“I think in a perfect world, if it were fair, and biology could make it fair, then everybody would be in favour of inclusion.

“This is not about being anti trans or having some ill will towards transgender people. It is about fairness for half of the world’s population.

“It’s a tipping point … it’s going to be much easier for other people [running sports governing bodies] to rely on the science that swimming used to come up with a decision to justify its decision (around trans women).”

Transgender rugby league player Caroline Layt, 56, said that while she agreed there should be guidelines in elite competition, FINA’s decision was discriminatory. “They are pretty much trying to take trans women out of sport,” said Ms Layt, who was the first transgender player to make the NSW State of Origin women’s team in 2007. “After puberty men are generally stronger than women, but we need a more ­nuanced approach to debate on this. People who have transitioned lose endurance and muscle mass, and after 10 to 15 years they would not even be competitive.

“People should have every right to participate. I am hopeful one day this won’t be such a big issue.”

Seebohm, who won medals across four Olympics, said she wanted transgender swimmers to “feel like they have this spot to shine in our sport and really ­blossom and to have what we have, which is this amazing platform to show their talents to the world”.

Seebohm said competing on a level playing field was “what sport is all about”.

“We have been striving for this for so long,” she said.

“We always push for a fair and even playing field in sport, whether it was the super-suit era in 2009 or drugs in sport.

“We are always aiming for fairness in the sport we cherish.

“A lot of sports will be looking at this and think ‘we need to make a decision now because someone else has done it’.

“Nobody wants to be the first one because it can be quite ­daunting but now swimming has done it, I don’t see why other sports would not be following ..”

Overnight in Budapest, Australian Olypmic flag-bearer Cate Campbell told FINA that a ban on trans swimmers in certain competitions was the right thing to do.

“Listen to the science and experts,” she said.

“Women, who have fought long and hard to be included and seen as equals in sport, can only do so because of the gender category distinction. To remove that distinction would be to the detriment of female athletes everywhere.”