There has been a lot of talk about transgenders in professional sports, with people being on both sides of the battle. Sometimes, the talk may even become heated, but there is always going to be a final word.
Most recently, a transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas, was trying to take part in the Olympic swimming team. The powers that be had given a ruling that officially disqualified her from competing in the Olympics, but she wanted to fight that so she took the legal battle to the courts.
Thomas was unsuccessful in her legal battle to qualify for the Olympics and the judges dismissed the attempt. In other words, she still won’t be able to compete in the Olympics after losing the battle.
In 2022, the spotlight was on Thomas as the 25-year-old American swimmer became the first transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. She won the women’s 500 yard freestyle event that year.
The world Aquatics later came back to ban anyone who had ‘been through male puberty’ from competing in races that include women. Thomas had started hormone replacement therapy in 2019.
This new rule didn’t come into place until after Thomas had won the gold medal, beating the silver medalist Emma Weyant.
The regulations that were unveiled later in that year and updated 1 January 2024 detail the eligibility for the women’s category. According to section 5.5.2, transgender women athletes are allowed to compete in the competitions as long as ‘they can establish to World Aquatics’s comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later’.
It then went on to share further details, saying: “Specifically, the athlete must produce evidence establishing that: They have complete androgen insensitivity and therefore could not experience male puberty; or They are androgen sensitive but had male puberty suppressed beginning at Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later, and they have since continuously maintained their testosterone levels in serum (or plasma) below 2.5 nmol/L.” the new rule
The panel concluded that Thomas ‘lacks standing to challenge the policy and the operational requirements in the framework of the present proceeding.’
She responded: “The CAS decision is deeply disappointing. Blanket bans preventing trans women from competing are discriminatory and deprive us of valuable athletic opportunities that are central to our identities.
“The CAS decision should be seen as a call to action to all trans women athletes to continue to fight for our dignity and human rights
I’m sure that we have not heard the last of this issue.