TRANSGENDER IN SPORTS (A CASE FOR THE FEMALE CATEGORY)

TRANSGENDER IN SPORTS (A CASE FOR THE FEMALE CATEGORY)

The issue of transgender

in sports have widely become noticed and is largely a controversial topic now.

Several elements such as inclusion, fairness, advantage, and safety have

jointly and severally made it a growing concern in the sports industry. While

certain sports organizations and bodies, have taken a stand to ban the

participation of these peculiar individuals, others have allowed their

participation in sporting activities, subject to certain rules in accordance

with their preferred gender identity. Many are of the view that such a defined

stand on allowing participation is seemingly wrong as it confers unfair

advantages on them (transgender women). Meanwhile, others posit that the exclusion

of these peculiar persons takes us deeper into harboring discrimination and

exposing them to stigmatization in the industry, which the sports sector has

been fighting for decades.?

This controversial issue

is like a mouse trap. While you’re waiting to catch the mouse, if you aren’t

careful, you could get injured by the same trap. It is apparent that there is

no definitive statistics on transgender athletes, as there is no governing body

that tracks this information. The science behind transgender generally still

leaves some unanswered questions. This brief work focuses on the transgender

issue in female sports, as it has little or no presence in the male sports

category.? A cursory analysis of the issue, elements, debatable questions,

and recommendations is also highlighted.

?

?

LET’S TALK?

The biggest battles as

regards this issue in sports, are being fought over in the boardrooms and

backrooms, as federations wrestle with the thorniest question of all; should

transgender women be allowed to participate in female sports??

For years, most have

regarded the issue as too dangerous to touch or tackle. It’s like passing a

ticking bomb in a closed box. Recently, the emergence of elite transwomen, such

as the weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the swimmer Lia Thomas, and the cyclist

Emily Bridges, has seen to that. Decisions and hard choices are being made too.

Several transwomen competed in the Tokyo games, making it the first time openly

trans athletes participated in the Olympics. Yes, it's funny how times change

and how new issues evolve, but strategic decisions and choices must also be

made.?

This has become a case of

gender identity versus biological sex. While gender is what you identify with,

sex is what you are born with. The question becomes, which should prevail? Are the

women’s sports under threat by allowing transwomen compete as ciswomen (biological

female/nonchalance women)??

WHAT DOES SCIENCE/STUDY

SAY??

Few studies have been done

on trans people's athletic performance, and to date, there are no published

studies on trans athletes participating at the elite level. But some papers

have been published in the lead-up to the Olympic Games.?

A Study, published in

2020, looked at a U.S. military personnel who transitioned while in service and

found that transwomen maintain an edge after one year of feminizing hormone therapy,

which usually includes suppressing testosterone levels and boosting estrogen

(By Dr. Timothy Roberts, a pediatrician and associate professor at the

University of Missouri-Kansas City, and his colleagues). They found that

transwomen who underwent hormone therapy for one year continue to outperform

cisgender women, with the gap largely being closed after two (2) years of

hormone therapy. But even then, transwomen still ran 12% faster. Roberts,

however, suggested that the difference in running times needs additional

perspective. “It was a 12% advantage after two years in runtimes. But to be in

the top 20% of female runners, you have to be 29% faster than the average

woman. And to be an elite female runner, you’ve got to be 59% faster than the

average woman”.??

Another study carried out

by sports scientist Tommy Lundberg, found that transwomen who underwent

feminizing hormone therapy generally maintained their strength levels after one

year. Further study and analysis show that young boys and girls, regardless of

the gender assigned at birth, have similar muscle mass. It is only once a child

experiences puberty that the differences begin to emerge, and they become

pronounced once boys experience a surge in testosterone. Typically, if you are

six or seven years old, there is no biological performance difference between

boys and girls. So, it starts around age 10 where you start to see disparity,

and then it really kicks in during puberty, and then, you have basically this big

difference muscle mass. Roberts said: “younger children before puberty, there

is no reason to have decisions of sex between boys and girls. They are

physiologically equivalent. It is after puberty that you really see this

divergence in athletic performance”. Thus, if any transwoman underwent puberty

as a cisman, then certain advantages would still be present even with

feminizing hormone therapy. An example is the US college swimmer Lia Thomas.

For her first three years at University of Pennsylvania, the 22-year?

old swam as a male competitor, making six Ivy League swimming finals though not setting the world alight. But in the past months competing as a transwoman after taking hormone replacement therapy to lower her testosterone, she swam the fastest 200- and 500-yard times in the US in the past years. That only tells half of the story.?

WHAT HAS BEEN SAID BY

ATHLETES AND NON- ATHELETES ON/OFF THIS CATEGORY?... WHAT ARE THE ARGUMENTS??

The heart of the debate on

whether transgender women athletes should compete in women’s sport involve the

complex balance of inclusion, fairness, and safety. These three elements are at

the core of the debate.?

On one side of the debate

are those who believe that transwomen should be excluded, to be fair to

cisgender women. Hubbard 's participation as a transwoman In the Summer

Olympics, prompted assertions such as this. With critics saying her eligibility

is a threat to fairness in sports, as it confers unfair advantages to her.?

University

of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas congratulates Princeton's Ellie Marquardt

after a qualifying ?heat of the

500-yard freestyle event at the Ivy League Women's Swimming and Diving

Championships.? (Source: forbes.com)

New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard (right) made a historic Olympics debut —

but failed to win a ?medal at the

Summer Olympics (Source: Mark Schiefelbein/AP/picture alliance)?

On the other side, are

those who believe that transwomen must be allowed to compete without conditions.

They argue that there are relatively few transwomen athletes, so their

inclusion on the women’s team won’t have an appreciable impact. They argue that

transwomen are a vulnerable minority and that anti-trans sports bills represent

a cruel effort to further stigmatize and discriminate against LGBT+ People

across the country, according to the Human Rights Campaign. Further, they posit

that despite the presence of transwomen in the female sports category, it is

yet to be proven that they are a threat or there is unfair advantage as stated by

critics, being that trophies in the female category are not being won by trans

women neither are they breaking the records or taking the spotlights. Thus,

saying that the argument that they be excluded from competing with cisgender

women be overlooked.?

Several transgender women

have spoken in detail about the debate and what it means to them to compete in

women's events. 21-year-old Bridges said she received little clarity on why she

was deemed ineligible to compete and described how she had received targeted

abuse on social media. The swimmer, Lia Thomas, told ESPN that it means the

world to be here, Following her victory at the college event. New Zealand

weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, in 2017 before the recent Tokyo Olympics said that

she hoped people would accept her competing in women's events.?

Also, several former and

current athletes have spoken about the issue and how it impacts them. Former

swimmer Sharon Davies has said that no rules can reverse the advantage of male

puberty and that the potential benefit of a performance gap could not be

ignored. British 800m athlete Ellie Baker tweeted about Bridges competing,

saying “How this has been allowed to happen is just ridiculous. I would refuse

to race and hope that other women will stand with me on this too.

This is totally unfair,

the advantages a transwoman has had from going through puberty as a boy to a

man can never be undone”. A letter sent to the Union Cyclist Internationale

(UCI), with Sara Symington, head of Olympic and Paralympic programs at British

Cycling as one of the signatories, urged the UCI to rescind its rules around

transgender participation.?

Participation

for transgender women in female sport is a hugely divisive topic. (Photograph: Paul ?Marriott/Shutterstock)?

WHAT DECISIONS HAVE BEEN

MADE??

The rules around

transgender women competing in elite sport vary, depending on the sports in

question. The focus on testosterone levels in athletes, with most rules stating

that trans women must lower and then maintain those levels in their body.?

World Athletics, which

governs track and field events, has set five (5) nanomoles of testosterone per

liter as its benchmark for trans women to participate in female categories.?

Federation Internationale

de Natation (FINA), the world aquatics body, created a seismic ripple when it

recently voted to bar transwomen from international female competitions. Its argument

in short, was that swimmers such as Lia Thomas retain significant physical

advantages in endurance, power, speed, strength, and lung size from undergoing

male puberty even if testosterone is later suppressed.?

British Cycling has

suspended its Transgender and Non-Binary Participation Policy in April 2022,

effectively banning transwomen from taking part in female competitions. Before

suspending its policy, it had ruled that athletes should have below 5 nanomoles

per liter for a 12-month period prior to competition, a level which is

maintained from then on. British Cycling suspended its policy in 2022 after the

world cycling governing body, UCI, Banned Welsh competitor Emily Bridges from

taking part in a female race at the last minute.

P.S - the average

testosterone level in males ranges from 9.2 nanomoles to 31.8 nanomoles as

opposed to 0.5 nanomoles to 2.8 nanomoles per liter in females. All depending

on age and time of the day.?

Trans cyclist

Emily Bridges was banned from competing in women's events last year. (Credit: ITV News)?

Thus, even the 5 nanomoles

threshold for transwomen to be eligible to perform in female category sports,

still seems high.?

World Rugby has banned

transwomen from playing at elite level. Saying that safety and fairness cannot

presently be assured. On the other hand, Rugby Football Union's domestic policy

in England allows trans women to play, under certain testosterone-based

conditions.?

The International Olympic

Committee (IOC) First permitted transgender athletes to take part in the

Olympics in 2004, if they had undergone “appropriate surgery”. Then in 2015 the

IOC stated that athletes who had transitioned from male to female could compete

in women's sport without requiring surgery if they have declared their gender

identity as female for at least four years and??

kept their testosterone

level below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months. A revised framework

was issued after the recent Tokyo Olympics which stated that there should be no

assumption that a transgender athlete automatically had unfair advantage in

female events.??

We can now see that there

are divergent decisions, rules and choices across the sporting governing bodies

in the industry. Hence, making the issue a highly indecisive one.

?

CAN WE SETTLE THIS DISPARITY AND INDECISION??

First, I would like to

posit that concerning this issue, there is no magic bullet, no spell-chant, no

one-size-fits-all policy that can satisfy all sides. The issue involves

competing rights versus strong emotions and identity versus stigmatization.?

For me, the issue is

having to prioritize one element over the others. The question then becomes

which element should take precedence in the female sport industry. Fairness,

inclusion, or safety??

First, inclusion clearly

stipulates that everyone should have equal opportunity at giving a shot in

their preferred sports category. If we are to prioritize this element over all

others, it means that no one should be excluded from participating in sporting

activities and this also means that no one should be discriminated by way of

being banned, because of gender identity, color, race or ability/disability.?

Fairness in sports on the

other hand, involves treating everyone impartially and equally, and each

according to their ability. A look further will highlight the fact that fair

competition is why separate women’s sports were created. It also goes to

highlight the fact that Competitive sports is ultimately a physical test, in

which post-puberty males, possess significant advantages. During puberty, boys

generally develop longer and denser bones, more muscle tissue, more strength,?

more speed, greater

height, and greater lung capacity than girls. These differences provide men

with a performance advantage that ranges from 8 to 50%. This is why men and

women have different tee boxes in golf; different three-point arcs in

basketball; different net heights in volleyball; and different hurdle heights

in track. All these encapsulate the reason for the separation, hence fairness.?

The last element, which is

safety, involves prioritizing the welfare of persons in sports (in this case

women). It looks at the idea that if this can’t cause any physical harm, then

it is safe to admit into the sphere. An example of the prioritization of this

element is the case of World Rugby when it banned transgender athletes. It said

“it is known that biological males (whose puberty and development is influenced

by androgens/testosterone) are stronger by 25% to 50%, are 30% more powerful,

40% heavier, and about 15% faster than biological females. That combination of

mass, strength, power, and speed means that in a direct physical contest,

ciswomen in these domains will be at significant risk of injury.?

From the foregoing it is

necessary to state that prioritizing one over others will leave a vacuum

because we don't have this easy-fix or easy regulation that can be applied. You

basically must choose or prioritize either inclusion, fairness, or safety, and

they don’t go hand in hand right now.?

In most sports, it’s going

to be problematic to include transwomen and achieve fairness or safety.?

On the other hand, exclusion of transwomen will be taken as transphobic,

discriminatory, and against Human Rights Policies.

?

WHAT DO WE RECCOMMEND??

While there’s no rule to

please all categories, here are some recommendations on the issue.?

a. Categorical Exclusion?

This is not an outright

exclusion of transwomen in sports but an exclusion of category switch in the

same sports. What this means is that if an athlete in a sports category such as

swimming or cycling as the case may be, has performed as a male over the years

in the sports category, a switch of such an athlete to perform in the female

category of same sports should be banned. Reasons being that irrespective of

biological sex advantage, such an athlete has gained experience, tactics, and

basic rudiments to excel in that sport. This alone already confers added

advantage in addition to the one derived biologically.?

To drive this point home,

it would be considered reasonably fair to allow one who was a? male

cyclist to become a female swimmer upon becoming a trans woman, because

she? did not gain any swimming rudiments or experience while she was a

male cyclist, Than? allowing an elite male swimmer who knows all about

swimming to switch to the female? category on becoming a transwoman and

suppressing testosterone. The experience in my opinion, constitutes the “unfair

advantage”. Hence, category switch in the same sports for transwomen should be

banned.?

b. Sports Evaluation?

What I mean by this, is

that before a decision is made, Evaluation of necessary skill set required for

the particular sport must be done. In essence, the question becomes, what is

needed to excel in this sport (is it strength, speed, height etc)? When this is

done, any?decision reached would be deemed reasonable. An example is the

World Rugby decision, where they had seen that strength, mass, and speed we are

key factors/advantages in the sport and trans women who had undergone puberty,

had these than the average ciswoman. Hence, their decision to ban transwomen

participation in female Rugby. Same analysis should go for all sports. If

certain qualities that trans women are deemed to possess from undergoing male

puberty, are not advantageous in this sport, then there is little or no need to

ban trans women participation in that sport.?

In addition to all these,

as suggested by several athletes and governing bodies, testosterone levels must

always kept at the barest minimum irrespective, so long as participation in the

female category of whatever sports is allowed.?

CONCLUSION?

I think the transgender

issue is very important, but protecting the women's category in sport is also

very important, they have fought long enough to have fair competition in sports.

Thus, regulation and governing bodies in sports should have a concrete,

definite and unbiased take on the issue in the different sport types and

category inclusion.

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

REFERENCES?

- Do trans athletes have an unfair advantage? – DW – 07/24/2021?

- Q&A: Transgender women in sport - key questions answered - BBC

Sport - A Fair And Inclusive

Solution For Transgender Women In Sports (forbes.com) - Sport’s trans issue is here

to stay. But at last, the debate is starting to change | International ?Olympic Committee | The

Guardian?

- Decision time: why sport is struggling to deal with transgender row

| Sport | The Guardian - British trans women banned

from female category cycling competitions | ITV News