Well beyond the basins of swimming pools, the subject causes eddies which have nothing of lapping. By winning the 500 yards (457 meters) freestyle event of the American University Championships (NCAA) in March 2022, swimmer Lia Thomas reignited an old controversy. Transgender, the member of the University of Pennsylvania competed, four years ago, in men’s competitions. Her athletic performances have largely been overwhelmed by the verbal sparring sparked by her fight for equal opportunity in sport and the rights of people who change gender.
Three months after Lia Thomas’ victory, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) decided, following an extraordinary congress, to set up a “open class” to transgender athletes. “Each of us must always, within the limits of the principles of equity, ensure the inclusion of all individuals regardless of their gender orientation”, explains the international body. In effect, this policy of inclusivity prohibits athletes assigned male at birth who become female from competing in female categories unless they transitioned before puberty. The men’s competition, on the other hand, should remain open to all athletes.
Thus was resolved, for swimming, a question that divides all sports circles: on the one hand, those who defend the right of transgender people to compete in their new category; and, on the other, those who believe that they benefit from a physiological advantage, even after having undergone hormone treatment – in terms of bone and muscle mass, strength or size – and go so far as to invoke doping in the former East Germany (GDR) in the 1970s.
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The debate is not recent. In August 1977, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of tennis player Renée Richards, banned from playing the US Open for women – the player reached the final of the American Grand Slam tournament in doubles that year. Already, then, these questions emerge: does a transgender person risk breaking sports equity? What about equal opportunities between players?
As the controversies surrounding New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who in 2021 became the first transgender woman to compete in the Olympic Games, have also shown, balancing inclusiveness and equity when it comes to eligibility of transgender athletes is one of the most complex – and controversial – issues in sport. On both sides, reasoned arguments abound.
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