This week, the worldwide governing body for track and field approved a new rule prohibiting transgender women from competing in women's events if they have gone through male puberty, calling it an issue of "fairness."
World Athletics said its council passed new rules excluding "male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female" international competitions. World Athletics has governed the sport since 1912.
"The Council decided to prioritise fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion," a statement said.
The decision by World Athletics comes less than a year after FINA – the governing body for swimming – passed a rule banning transgender women athletes from competing in international swimming events if they've gone through puberty.
"Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations," said World Athletics president Sebastian Coe." We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years. As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount."
Globally, some sports organizations have chosen to allow male-to-female athletes to compete if they lower their testosterone levels. World Athletics, though, said it opted against that possibility.
"It became apparent that there was little support within the sport for the option that was first presented to stakeholders, which required transgender athletes to maintain their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for 24 months to be eligible to compete internationally in the female category," the statement said.
Currently, there are no transgender athletes competing internationally, World Athletics said.
Last year, FINA cited studies showing that males have a "relative performance advantage over biological females."
"A biological female athlete cannot overcome that advantage through training or nutrition," FINA said.
Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic said transgender female athletes maintain their advantage even after taking hormone suppressors.
"Testosterone in male puberty alter the physiological determinants of human performance and explain the sex-based differences in human performance that are clearly evident by age 12," Joyner said, according to SwimSwam.com. "Even if testosterone is suppressed, its performance-enhancing effects will be retained."
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Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
