The Ivy League drew national attention recently when transgender swimmer Lia Thomas competed for Penn on the women’s swim team. Now that Thomas won an NCAA national championship, Thomas’ next step is to swim in the women’s Olympic Trials.
But, would that be possible?
Due to recent rules adopted to address transgender women competing on women’s teams, probably not. On January 19, 2022, the NCAA Board of Governors adopted stricter standards for athletes seeking to compete as women. Because the NCAA lacked the capability to test athletes’ hormone levels or biological sex, it had previously adopted a simple rule for all sports: an 18 month waiting period. Thomas followed that rule and paused between competing as a male collegiate athlete and as a female athlete.
The NCAA’s new rule adopts separate regulations for each sport, deferring to each sport’s national governing body, its international federation, or the International Olympic Committee (IOC). These groups have medical staff to study the different physiological demands of each sport and the blood and urine testing capability to prevent unfair competition. However, the Spring 2022 NCAA championship used the old eligibility rules, and Thomas was allowed to compete for the woman’s title to minimize a sudden impact of the rule change.
Swimming
On June 19, the Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), the international federation governing swimming, adopted a rule that prohibits athletes who have completed puberty as a male from ever competing as a woman. This would prevent Thomas or other athletes who transitioned after reaching Tanner Stage 2 (or after age 12) from competing as women. These rules would also apply to any records set in future competitions.
Other Sports
The Olympics offer a wide variety of sports, and athletes have long taken advantage of obscure opportunities to win Olympic medals. For example, Richard Parke ‘16 won a gold medal as a walk-on in the 1928 Olympic Bobsled competition.
In track and field, there are eligibility rules based upon hormone levels. However, leaders of World Athletics have announced that they will consider following FINA’s total ban approach at their meeting later this year. Instead, World Athletics would offer a separate division for “open” athletes, allowing transgender athletes to compete in a new category.
USA Weightlifting requires at least two years of hormone therapy before competing as a woman, with the policy up for review in 2023.
Regarding basketball, the Olympics offers vigorous competition in separate men’s and women’s divisions at the Olympic Games and other international tournaments. It lacks a specific policy on transgender athletes, so the general IOC rules apply.
On the other hand, the governing body of a similar sport has welcomed transgender athletes to participate. Netball was created during the Victorian era by female physical education teachers who thought that basketball was too unlady-like. They wrote separate rules for women, including limiting players from moving the length of the court. This sport was spread by P.E. teachers across the British Empire and is now known as “netball.” Netball advocates have been demanding inclusion of their “women-only” sport in the Olympics as a matter of gender equity, so far without success. They are now lobbying to be included as a demonstration sport in the 2032 Sydney Olympics.
In sum, although FINA has now closed the door on transgender swim athletes like Thomas from competing in the Olympics, the sport-by-sport rulemaking process leaves plenty of other opportunities to compete, perhaps in a separate “open” division. It remains to be seen if these opportunities will attract the fan base that men’s and women’s sports currently maintain.
This article was written by a member of the Cornell community who requested to stay anonymous.
