▲ Transgender athlete Leah Thomas won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) women’s 500-yard freestyle event on March 17 last year. AP Yonhap News Players who changed their gender from male to female will not be able to participate in women’s intercollegiate games in the United States starting in August.
According to the Washington Post (WP) on the 8th (local time), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NAIA), which oversees intercollegiate athletics in the United States, has decided to ban athletes who have transitioned to women from compete in women’s games.
At the annual meeting held on this day, the NAIA Presidential Council decided that starting August 1st, when the new semester begins, only students whose biological gender is female and who have not started hormone treatment to change their gender a male will be allowed to compete. in intercollegiate competitions for girls.
NAIA has 241 American universities as members, most of which are private and not large in size.
Transgender rights advocacy groups immediately protested. Although the NAIA is not large, there is a possibility that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which is much larger and more influential, will follow this decision.
“The NAIA’s decision could give the perception that the NCAA is free to do the same thing,” said Anna Beth, who works for an organization that advocates for gay participation in sports. “That perception is very wrong.”
Currently, the NCAA requires that transgender athletes compete in accordance with the guidelines of the international association that governs all sporting events.
‘No.1 female swimmer’ with intact male genitalia… “I can’t admit it,” female athletes file suit
Last month, 16 current and former female college athletes whose biological gender is female filed a lawsuit demanding that the NCAA ban transgender women from competing in women’s games. They also requested the invalidation of all records and titles based on the results of competitions that allowed transgender female athletes to participate ▲ Transgender athlete won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 500-yard freestyle swimming on March 17 last year Leah Thomas. Yonhap AP News The player they had a dispute with was Leah Thomas (25, USA). In their lawsuit, the NCAA violated Title IX, a law that prohibits gender discrimination in education, by allowing transgender athlete Thomas to compete in the women’s event at the 2022 US College Swimming Championships, thereby violated the equal rights of female athletes who insisted.
Thomas became controversial by joining the women’s swimming team and achieving overwhelming results through hormone therapy rather than having genital removal surgery.
At the time, the NCAA allowed Thomas to compete in women’s competitions, saying he had received male hormone suppression treatment for more than a year.
As debate over fairness grew, the International Swimming Federation strengthened its regulations in June 2022, stating, “Only athletes who underwent gender reassignment surgery before the age of 12 may participate in women’s competitions.” Previously, players transitioning from male to female could participate in women’s games if they maintained their testosterone (male hormone) level below the standard.
Currently, Thomas has filed a lawsuit with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to return to elite women’s competition.
Reporter Kim Min-ji
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