International Athletics Federation President Sebastian Coe has said he favors "equity" over "inclusion" when it comes to rules for transgender athletes competing in women's events.
“My responsibility is to protect the integrity of women's sport.
If we have to adjust the protocols in the future, we will
,” making it clear that if pushed to choose between
“fairness”
and
“inclusion
,” he would
“always side with fairness
. ”
Present on Sunday at the world swimming championships taking place in Budapest, Sebastian Coe added:
“We see an international federation that asserts its supremacy in setting the rules, regulations and policies that are in the best interest of its sport.
This is how it should be.
We have always believed, and we repeat this constantly, that biology trumps gender and we will continue to review our rules in this direction.
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On the same day, the president of the international swimming federation, Husain Al-Musallam, had announced the creation of an
"open category"
to allow transgender athletes to compete separately.
Under these rules, the men's competition would be open to all.
On the other hand, athletes who were born male and became female will only be able to compete in the women's Fina categories, or set female world records, if they became female before puberty.
This Fina decision comes as the swimming world has been rocked by a controversy over American transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
The 22-year-old student, born male, had become the first transgender swimmer to win a university title in the spring.
According to the rules of the International Athletics Federation, transgender women must have sufficiently low testosterone levels for at least twelve months before a competition.
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