World Athletics Federation president Sebastian Koh (65) supported the decision of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) to ‘de facto ban athletes who underwent gender reassignment from participating in women’s events’.
Chairman Ko said in an interview with the BBC on the 21st (Korean time), “When inclusion and fairness collide in sports, I always stand on the side of fairness.” “Fairness is a very important value that must not be compromised in the sports field.”
“The participation of a transgender woman who was born as a male and has undergone gender reassignment surgery to participate in the women’s event may undermine fairness,” is the opinion of Chairman Ko.
At the extraordinary general meeting held on the 19th, FINA adopted a new ‘gender inclusion policy’ that only requires transgender women to compete in the women’s event if they underwent surgery before the age of 12.
Recently, the World Association of Transgender Health Professionals (WPATH) lowered the minimum recommended age for gender reassignment to 14 for hormone therapy and 15 to 17 for surgery.
The fact that FINA set the condition for allowing transgender women to participate in the women’s division as ‘surgery before the age of 12’ can be seen as a de facto prohibition of transgender participation.
Chairman Ko, who always emphasized ‘fairness’ between ‘inclusiveness’ and ‘fairness’, welcomed FINA’s decision.
According to the BBC, “The World Athletics Federation also hinted at its will to ban transgender women from competing in women’s events.”
“If we allow transgender athletes to participate in the women’s event, the future of women’s sports is at stake.
The World Association of Athletics Federations believes that biology is currently superior to gender.
“We plan to discuss testosterone level regulation later this year.”
The World Federation of Athletics Federations stipulates that “testosterone levels must be less than 5nmol/L to compete in the 400m, 400m hurdles, 800m, 1,500m, and 1 mile (1.62km) events.”
The official name is ‘DSD’ (Differences of Sexual Development) regulation.
Normal female testosterone levels are 0.12 to 1.79 nmol/L (nanomoles), and men’s levels are 7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L.
In the meantime, the issue of transgender women’s participation in the World Athletics Federation has not been raised.
Instead, women who were born female but have excessively high testosterone levels have been strictly prohibited from participating in mid- and long-distance events.
Women’s 800m star Caster Semenya (South Africa) is currently unable to compete in international competitions and is in a legal battle with the World Athletics Federation.
President Koh also appears to be moving to expand events in which athletes with high testosterone levels cannot participate.
Christine Mboma (19, Namibia), whose main event was 400m, but changed the event to 200m to avoid restrictions by the World Athletics Federation, is showing off her world-class skills as a sprinter, such as winning a silver medal in the women’s 200m at the Tokyo Olympics.
Chairman Ko said, “We will review from a scientific point of view to what extent testosterone can undermine the fairness of testosterone.”
/yunhap news
