FINA votes to restrict transgender participation in elite women's competition

World swimming's governing body has effectively banned transgender women from competing in women's events, starting Monday.

FINA members widely adopted a new "gender inclusion policy" on Sunday that only permits swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women's events. The organization also proposed an "open competition category."

"This is not saying that people are encouraged to transition by the age of 12. It's what the scientists are saying, that if you transition after the start of puberty, you have an advantage, which is unfair," James Pearce, who is the spokesperson for FINA president Husain Al-Musallam, told The Associated Press.

"They're not saying everyone should transition by age 11, that's ridiculous. You can't transition by that age in most countries and hopefully you wouldn't be encouraged to. Basically, what they're saying is that it is not feasible for people who have transitioned to compete without having an advantage."

Pearce confirmed there are currently no transgender women competing in elite levels of swimming.

FINA's new 24-page policy also includes proposals for a new "open competition" category. The organization said it was setting up "a new working group that will spend the next six months looking at the most effective ways to set up this new category."

Pearce told the AP that the open competition would most likely mean more events, but those details still need to be worked out.

"No one quite knows how this is going to work. And we need to include a lot of different people, including transgender athletes, to work out how it would work," he said. "So there are no details of how that would work. The open category is something that will start being discussed tomorrow."

In a statement to CBC News, Athlete Ally, an AmericanLGBTQ+ athletic advocacy group, says the new policy can not be enforced without violating the privacy and human rights of the athletes looking to compete in the women's category.

"FINA's new eligibility criteria for transgender athletes and athletes with intersex variations is deeply discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 International Olympic Committee framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations."

Voting, Thomas' past dispute of advantage

The members voted 71.5 per centin favour at the organization's extraordinary general congress after hearing presentations from three specialist groups an athlete group, a science and medicine group and a legal and human rights group that had been working together to form the policy following recommendations given by the International Olympic Committee last November.

The IOC urged shifting the focus from individual testosterone levels and calling for evidence to prove when a performance advantage existed.

FINA said it recognizes "that some individuals and groups may be uncomfortable with the use of medical and scientific terminology related to sex and sex-linked traits [but]some use of sensitive terminology is needed to be precise about the sex characteristics that justify separate competition categories."

In March, Lia Thomas made history in the United States as the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming championship, the 500-yard freestyle.

Thomas didn't immediately respond to a message left with the University of Pennsylvania seeking comment.

Dr. Alireza Hamidian Jahromi, co-director of the Gender Affirmation Surgery Center at Temple University Hospitals in Philadelphia, said 12 is an arbitrary age.

"Where did that 12 come from?" he said. "Is that a specific age that everybody is supposed to have passed through puberty, because it may not be the case."

Age of puberty varies for different people, he said.

Hamidian Jahromi said the transition involves three stages: social, medical involving hormones and surgical. "Which of these three do they mean? Should the patient have undergone surgery by that time, which is almost impossible," he said.

Other sports have also been examining their rules around transgender athletes.

On Thursday, cycling's governing body updated its eligibility rules for transgender athletes with stricter limits that will force riders to wait longer before they can compete.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) increased the transition period on low testosterone to two years, and lowered the maximum accepted level of testosterone. The previous transition period was 12 months but the UCI said recent scientific studies show that "the awaited adaptations in muscle mass and muscle strength/power" among athletes who have made a transition from male to female takes at least two years.