Transgender issue is for sports to decide, says John Coates
Australia’s outgoing Olympics boss John Coates said individual sports should determine whether transgender athletes can compete in elite competition.
Australia’s outgoing Olympics boss John Coates said individual sports should determine whether transgender athletes can compete in elite competition.
At the first meeting of the organising committee for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, Mr Coates said there was a place for transgender athletes in sport but they had to ensure women were not “prejudiced” by inclusion.
“Basically, it should not be a disadvantage if you are competing against someone who is transgender, you shouldn’t be changing your body in order to compete in sport,” the Australian Olympic Committee president said.
“(The International Olympic Committee) at the end of the day decided that one size does not fit all and so we have three sports at the moment where transgenders are welcome and don’t have an advantage – that is horse riding, archery and shooting.”
Mr Coates said it was up to individual sports to decide their own rules.
“The sport needs to look at itself; even within a sport the benefit of being transgender varies as to what event you are in,” he said.
“There is a place for transgender women, transgender people, but we have to make sure that girls are not being prejudiced by having to compete against them.”
Brisbane 2032 organising committee president Andrew Liveris believes “inclusion is inclusion” when it comes to transgender women competing in elite female sport, and noted “politics and sport have been a mixture for a long time”.
“We are in a different century than last century and so we have got to pay respect to everybody’s role and nationality,” he said.
Debate over transgender athletes has flared during the federal election campaign, with the Liberal candidate for the northern Sydney seat of Warringah, Katherine Deves, criticised for her stand on the issue.
Ms Deves has been forced to issue apologies over comments she made before her preselection, including describing transgender children as “surgically mutilated and sterilised” and likening her lobbying to stop transgender athletes from competing in women’s sport to standing up against the Holocaust.
Australia’s most decorated Olympian, swimmer Emma McKeon, last week said she would not want to race against a transgender athlete.
“But now that it’s a growing thing, the sport has to think about how to handle it and how to deal with it because you do want to be inclusive, but you don’t want to have females racing against swimmers who are biologically male because it’s just not fair,” McKeon said.
Swimming Australia officials have backed the star’s calls for a clear ruling from world swimming authorities on the trans athlete debate.
Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm, who waded into the debate last week saying “biological males are always going to be faster and stronger”, was left horrified after conservative lobby group Advance Australia used photos of her and McKeon alongside the words: “Women’s sport is not for men.”
“I have no idea who Advance Australia is but … I don’t want my photo next to something saying transphobic,” Seebohm said.
“I’ve not once said that I don’t want inclusivity in this sport.
“I want everyone to feel included in this sport, we just have to work out how that works and how this will look.”
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