The days of speedy transitions in gender in order to compete in women’s swimming seem to be coming to an end according to some new rules imposed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) pertaining to restricting male-to-female transgenders who’ve already undergone male puberty.
FINA drew a line in the sand, or perhaps in the water rather, when it comes to biological males competing in women’s elite races, with 71% of the body voting that biological males who identify as female may compete in elite swimming events so long as “they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 [which marks the start of physical development], or before age 12, whichever is later.”
The decision from FINA comes in the wake of contentious UPenn collegiate swimmer Will “Lia” Thomas destroying his female peers in the sport here stateside, as he’s expressed interest in competing in the Olympics. However, those dreams of being a female-competing Olympic swimmer are gone for Thomas, as this decision from FINA will now bar him from such competitions.
Brent Nowicki, FINA’s executive director, asserted that the body came to the right decision in terms of balancing science and inclusivity, stating, “FINA’s approach in drafting this policy was comprehensive, science-based and inclusive, and, importantly, Fina’s approach emphasized competitive fairness.”
FINA’s president, Husain Al-Musallam, delivered similar remarks, saying that the body was trying to ensure they were protecting “the rights of our athletes to compete” while also giving proper regard to safeguarding “competitive fairness.”
Sharron Davies, a former competitive swimmer out of Great Britain, stated she was “really proud of FINA” for having reached this decision, as she has been among those arguing against the likes of fully developed males competing against authentic women in sports.
“Four years ago, along with 60 other Olympic medalists, I wrote to the IOC and said, ‘Please just do the science first,’ and no governing body has done the science until now. That is what FINA has done. They’ve done the science, they’ve got the right people on board, they’ve spoken to the athletes, and coaches.”
When Davies was asked whether she felt FINA’s decision has left other transgenders who wound up undergoing treatments post-puberty were being left “in limbo” whilst a separate category is created for them, Davies rightfully pointed out that sports are “exclusionary” in a myriad of ways, and this is no different.
“Sport by definition is exclusionary – we don’t have 15-year-old boys racing in the under-12s, we don’t have heavyweight boxers in with the bantamweights, the whole reason we have lots of different classes in the Paralympics is so that we can create fair opportunities for everybody.
“So that is the whole point of having classifications in sports and the only people who were going to be losing out were females – they were losing their right to fair sport.”
This piece was written by Gregory Hoyt on June 19, 2022. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.
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Simple solution. If you have a Y chromosome then you can only compete against others who also have a Y chromosome. If you don’t have a Y chromosome then you can only compete against others who also don’t have a Y chromosome. How you dress and how you feel are irrelevant.
Finally, a decision was made based upon what is proper and not dictated by woke wave.