Caster Semenya (front) was recently banned from starting due to incorrect studies.
Foto: imago images/Xinhua
Anyone who wants to answer the question of whether inter and trans people are allowed to compete in women’s sporting competitions is entering a minefield that has become increasingly dense in recent years. Even so, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ventured a step into it. It’s not always his style, but if you want to defuse mines, you have to get closer to them. “This topic is highly political. It seems that one has to choose between two extremes: for women in sport or for transgender people in sport; for banishment and compulsion to medically unnecessary interventions or for the abandonment of all boundaries, “said Katia Mascagni, head of the IOC department for public affairs, the crux of the matter right at the beginning of an approximately one-hour presentation on Tuesday evening, which dealt with inter and trans women in Future is likely to change. To anticipate: the minefield is far from cleared, criticism is coming from all sides, and yet it can be a step forward.
The IOC has developed guidelines with which individual sports associations should set their own rules as to who may and who may not compete. They should adhere to ten principles. These include fairness, inclusion, the rejection of discrimination and unnecessary medical interventions as well as the obligation to provide scientific evidence. If the associations adhere to this, it would mean the end of generally applicable limit values such as 10 mmol testosterone per liter of blood, which athletes were not allowed to exceed in the end. For a start ban it would now have to be proven that the athlete, of course, gives the athlete a significant advantage in her sport with a higher value.
In the summer, among others, the South African athlete Caster Semenya was denied the right to start over 800 meters at the Olympics in Tokyo. Since she had refused to lower her testosterone level with medication, she could not fulfill her dream of the third gold. The start ban was preceded by a study by the World Athletics Association (WA), which established a causal relationship between testosterone and athletic performance, the validity of which, however, was questioned shortly after the games by the scientists themselves. Whether Semenya can run on her favorite track again depends on whether WA rewrites his rules. The IOC wishes to use the new guidelines for precisely this process.
For trans and inter athletes this sounds like progress at first, but: “Our new framework is not legally binding,” stated Kaveh Mehrabi, IOC director for athletes’ affairs. The greatest criticism is therefore that the responsibility is only passed on and that associations are not punished if they disregard the guidelines. IOC spokesman Christian Klaue defended the procedure: »The IOC cannot regulate every sport. That is a matter for the associations. But we shouldn’t always assume that they don’t want to find solutions. We don’t stay out of it either, because we offer our help, knowledge and money for further research, ”says Klaue.
In fact, the IOC is so powerful that no association should openly oppose the guidelines. Most recently, the Aiba boxing association had its own Olympic tournament withdrawn by the IOC because it had disregarded demands for a tougher fight against corruption for too long. The decision to remove riding from the program in the modern pentathlon in the medium term is said to have been made under pressure from the IOC. After all, no association risks being excluded from the Olympics – and the associated loss of a lot of money.
This is exactly what those feared who recently advocated a strict starting ban for trans and inter people. You accuse the IOC of sealing the end of women’s sport with its guidelines, as the defender of which you portray yourself in a pseudo-feminist way. “Inclusion of trans women (men) is more important to the IOC than fairness for women,” was a post that many Twitter users read in some versions on Wednesday. Your movement has recently gained popularity, especially in conservative circles in the United States. They postulate that a higher testosterone level automatically brings advantages and that “normal” Cis women – for example in martial arts – would be exposed to a higher risk of injury.
“Medical studies show, however, that athletic performance does not increase proportionally with a natural testosterone level,” countered IOC medical director Richard Budgett. In addition, the new guidelines do not rule out starting bans. If an advantage or an increased risk of injury is proven, athletes can continue to be excluded from competitions.
The solution has not yet been found
The advantage argument is tricky, however. After all, nobody thought of banning Usain Bolt from competitions, even if the experts assume that he is gifted with special proportions and muscle fibers that had given him a significant advantage during his active days as a sprinter. Nobody demands a length limit in volleyball because taller athletes would have an advantage – or in gymnastics, where smaller athletes can turn faster somersaults.
However, competitions for women were introduced to give them chances of victory that they would not normally have over men in top-class sport. »Cis women rightly want to maintain fairness. But we are now choosing another way of achieving this. Instead of defining who a woman is, we prefer to look at real differences in performance, ”said Katia Mascagni. And in case of doubt, the decision should be made for inclusion.
Protecting the women’s category in a society that is increasingly detaching itself from the binary gender construct is the problem that sport has to solve. “We have not yet found this solution,” admits IOC spokesman Christian Klaue frankly. But the approach of excluding some athletes just because they look different or are believed to have an unfair advantage is being dropped.
High pressure to act at the IOC
The IOC representatives in Lausanne made it important that their new catalog was not a snap shot. “This process has been going on for three years,” said Kaveh Mehrabi. We spoke with experts from the areas of human rights, medicine and justice as well as with cis athletes and trans and inter sportswomen. “We have heard everyone who is affected,” said Mehrabi.
The IOC was under considerable pressure. The World Medical Association had advised its members against administering medically unnecessary medication in order to comply with limit values. The UN had also classified such regulations as a violation of human rights. Nonetheless, conservative states in the US have recently passed more and more laws that forbid transgender people from competing against other women. In short: further postponement of the topic was no longer an option.
The professional associations are not given an ultimatum. Not all of them have to introduce new regulations by the next Summer Games in 2024, especially since very few associations are currently confronted with the problem at all. Nevertheless, from March 2022 they will be offered the first seminars on how they can come to new provisions, if they want them.
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