Football and athletics likely to follow swimming’s trans ban

World athletics is likely to follow swimming in imposing a ban on transgender athletes from elite women’s races.

Australia’s Linden Hall and Jessica Hull after the final of the 1500m at the Beijing Olympics. Picture: Alex Coppel

World athletics is likely to follow swimming in imposing a ban on transgender athletes from elite women’s races, with its president, Lord Coe, stressing that “biology trumps gender” when it comes to fairness in competition.

Football’s world governing body, Fifa, is also considering following the international swimming federation Fina’s new policy, which states that anyone who has gone through male puberty cannot take part in female competitions regardless of whether they have transitioned to become a woman.

Fina plans to create an open category and a protected female category. Coe said that athletics’ rules were being reviewed but he made clear which side of the argument he falls on and applauded swimming for its stance.

Swimming’s governing body plans to create an open category and a protected female category. Australia’s 4x100m freestyle relay team on day one of the Budapest 2022 Fina World Championships. Picture: Getty Images

“We see an international federation asserting its primacy in setting rules, regulations and policies that are in the best interest of its sport,” Coe said. “This is as it should be. We have always believed, and repeated constantly, that biology trumps gender and we will continue to review our regulations in line with this.

“My responsibility is to protect the integrity of women’s sport and we take that very seriously. If it means that we have to make adjustments to protocols, we will. If we ever get pushed into a corner where we’re making a judgment about fairness or inclusion, I will always fall down on the side of fairness.”

Fifa is also going through a period of consultation on the issue and one senior figure in the organisation said that the outcome would be “science-based” rather than decisions being judged on the self-identification of individuals as male or female.

“We will look very closely at the new Fina policy and it may well be that male puberty and/or testosterone levels will be the determining factor,” the Fifa source said.

Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, said that the Fina ruling reflected government policy on the issue. She told LBC radio: “It’s absolutely the right decision they’ve reached and I am going to encourage other sports [to do the same].

“We’re about to have a round table with all of the sports governing bodies. It is just unacceptable that trans women compete in women’s sport.

“If you have been through puberty you cannot reverse the size of your feet, the length of your femur, the density of your bone, your muscle strength, the size of your hands.”

The World Athletics council is due to meet at the end of this year and Coe was asked if his organisation would now adopt a similar policy to swimming.

The existing rules exclude DSD athletes from 400m to the mile in women’s track events. DSD refers to those with “differences of sexual development” - such as the two-times Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya - who have male chromosomes but were raised as female. “We have always said our regulations in this area are a living document specific to our sport and we will follow the science,” Coe said.

“We continue to study, research and contribute to the growing body of evidence that testosterone is a key determinator in performance and have scheduled a discussion on our DSD and transgender regulations with our council at the end of the year.

Semenya has spoken out against the decision to ban DSD athletes from competing in some track events. Picture: Getty Images

“Of the Olympic sports, we were the ones that took the lead on DSD. We had our high-profile issues in Berlin [at the World Championships] in 2009 [when Semenya was subjected to rumours and innunedo about her gender]. But, under my presidency, it was in the in-tray and it needed resolving.”

Coe added: “Transgender is a societal issue, it’s not a new issue. But, in sport, it certainly is. And in 2019 we brought into alignment our DSD and our transgender regulations. And, again, transgender [policies], that is something we are also looking at.

“If one of my colleagues becomes transgender, it doesn’t make a difference to me. They will continue to do the same job in exactly the way they were before. This is not possible in sport. It is fundamental to performance and integrity and that, for me, is the big difference.”

Coe said that any new regulations needed to be introduced methodically, with World Athletics already spending more than pounds 1 million in legal fees on the DSD issue. “We tabled the regulations, they got upheld by the Court of Arbitration and, at that point, we were clear that proportionality meant that we identified those events with the most empirical, scientific background to show a performance enhancement [for DSD athletes],” Coe said. “But those are under review.”

The IOC said it awaited Fina proposals for an open category before commenting.

What are the rules for transgender women in sport?

Olympics The IOC encourages international federations to have their own individual policies and has dropped its previous guidelines for testosterone levels to be below 10 nanomoles (nmol) per litre for 12 months.

What are the rules for transgender women in sport?

Swimming
Players who have gone through male puberty are not allowed to swim in elite female competition.

Athletics
World Athletics’ policy is under review but its existing rules state that transgender women can compete in female competition if their testosterone levels have been below 5 nmol per litre for 12 months.

Football

Fifa is conducting a consultation process but senior figures say it is likely that players who have gone through male puberty would not be able to play in elite female competition, or only with greatly reduced testosterone levels. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis at present.

Cycling
The UCI last week cut the maximum testosterone level allowed in transgender women riders to 2.5 nmol per litre instead of five, with a two-year transition period instead of 12 months.

Cricket

The ECB is reviewing its policy for domestic cricket which allows transgender women to take part in elite female competitions subject to approval by the governing body. The ICC’s policy allows trans women to play women’s cricket at international level if their testosterone level has been under 5 nmol per litre for 12 months.

Rugby union
Transgender women who transitioned post-puberty and have experienced the biological effects of testosterone during puberty and adolescence cannot currently play women’s rugby.

Rugby league

The international federation is expected to announce a new policy by the end of the year. At the moment it also has the rule of testosterone levels being below 5 nmol per litre for 12 months.

Tennis
The ITF also follows the rule of testosterone levels being below 5 nmol per litre for 12 months.

The Times