The American swimming federation, USA Swimming, will toughen its regulations for transgender athletes, by imposing a limit level of testosterone. This response follows the controversy surrounding university swimmer Lia Thomas, accused of being unfairly advantaged because she was born a man.
The controversy surrounding the very good swimming results of this 22-year-old student once again raised the delicate question of the place of transgender athletes, between concern for inclusion and protection of sporting equity. At the beginning of December, in Akron (Ohio), she achieved the best performances of the year at the university level in the 200 yards (183 meters) free (1 min 41 sec 93 “) and in the 500 yards (457 meters) free (4 min 34 sec 06”).
This decision could block the path to the University of Pennsylvania swimmer for the next university competitions (NCAA) since this federation declared in January to apply the rules laid down by USA Swimming.
The controversy has also taken a political turn in the United States, where several conservative states have recently passed laws to block the path of young transgender girls to women’s sports in school. “We will prohibit men from participating in women’s competitions”had launched Donald Trump, on January 15, during a meeting in Arizona.
The swimmer Lia Thomas had yet respected the rules of the NCAA, by submitting to a treatment of testosterone suppression for a year. But some organizations, such as the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, have deemed these rules insufficient, particularly in the case where an athlete began her transition after puberty.
Some American media have echoed a feeling of injustice felt by teammates or opponents of Lia Thomas. On Tuesday, some of his comrades, on the other hand, supported him in a statement, assuring that “feelings put forward by an anonymous member of the team” did not reflect the whole group.
USA Swimming clarified that different rules will apply depending on the level, elite or non-elite. At the elite level, the federation evokes two criteria. On the one hand, the “evidence that the Athlete’s prior physical development, as a male, and although mitigated by any medical intervention, does not give the Athlete a competitive advantage over female cisgender competitors (self-identifying to their biological sex at birth, editor’s note)”. On the other hand, “evidence that the Athlete’s serum testosterone concentration has been continuously below 5 nmol/L for a period of at least thirty-six months prior to the date of the application”.
The International Athletics Federation (World Athletics) also imposes testosterone limits (since 2019, less than 5 nmol / l for twelve months). It is on this basis that the transgender athlete CeCe Telfer was excluded from the American Olympic selections in June 2021.
In November, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) passed the ball to every sport, pointing out the lack of “scientific consensus on the role of testosterone in performance across sports”. Five months after the first participation in the Summer Olympics of a sportswoman transgenderin weightlifting, the question remains a headache for sports institutions.