Amélie Oudéa-Castéra does not rule anything out. On Wednesday April 12 on Franceinfo, the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) recalled that the participation of transgender athletes in the high mass of sport in Paris, in the summer of 2024, would depend on the rules put in place by international federations. “There are differences from one discipline to another”she insisted.
World Athletics has decided to ban from its competitions, effective March 31, “transgender athletes who have experienced male puberty”. “For many, the evidence that trans women do not retain an advantage over biological women is insufficient. They want more proof (…) before considering the option of inclusion in the women’s category”then detailed Sebastian Coe, the president of the body.
“We’re not saying no forever”, however, qualified the Briton. A specific working group was to be created for a year within its federation to study future scientific and “consider later a possible inclusion”.
Laurel Hubbard, the pioneer
“It is a difficult and evolving subject in which we must navigate between two requirements, inclusion and respect for sporting equity”argued M.me Oudéa-Castéra on Franceinfo, returning to the decision of World Athletics.
“Not everyone is on that line. Scientific progress will inform the decision of these actors”she said, while studies on the subject, particularly on the role of testosterone in high-level athletic performance, are lacking or controversial.
In August 2021, in Tokyo, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard made history by becoming the first openly transgender woman to compete in an Olympic event. At the time, she met the qualification criteria for the Olympics, which required a testosterone level maintained under 10 nanomoles (nmol) per liter for at least twelve months.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) gave up, at the end of 2021, to establish uniform guidelines as to the criteria for the participation of intersex and transgender athletes, leaving the hand to international federations.