World Swimming Association Prohibits Transgender Women from Participating in Competitions Israel today

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) today (Monday) voted to ban transgender women from taking part in elite women's competitions, if they have experienced any part of male puberty, in a precedent-setting decision that sets it apart from most Olympic sports.

The decision, decided by 71% of the votes of 152 national federations at the Budapest World Championships, followed a report by a scientific panel that found trans women maintained a significant advantage over biological women swimmers, even after reducing their testosterone levels through medication.

BREAKING: Fina, swimming's world governing body, has banned transgender athletes from competing in women's elite races if they've gone through any part of male puberty.

Finally, common sense prevails!

https://t.co/GZUSVqbnfP pic.twitter.com/p2hMmiftn1

- Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 19, 2022

A new 34-page policy document states that transgender athletes can now compete in the women's category only "provided they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond the tanner stage (which marks the beginning of physical development) or before the age of 12, whichever is later."

Referring to the policies of FINA President Hussein al-Muslim, he said: "We must protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we must also protect competitive fairness in our events, especially in the women's category."

FINA has promised to set up a working group to establish an “open” category for trans women at certain events as part of its new policy.

"A corner will always welcome any athlete," Muslim added.

"Creating an open category will give everyone an opportunity to compete at an elite level. This has not been done before, so a corner will have to lead the way."

The vote makes swimming the only second Olympic body, after world rugby in 2020, to impose a ban on scientific grounds.

Most other sports have used testosterone limits as a basis to allow trans women to compete in the women's category.

Recently, more and more sports have raised the question of the participation of trans women, with one of the familiar stories being Lia Thomas, who even recently announced that she hopes to attend the 2024 Paris Olympics.

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