Lia Thomas and Sebastian Coe (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons).
In a victory for women’s sports, World Athletics adopted rules that exclude transgender women from competing as women in international elite track meets.
World Athletics is the international governing body for track, field, and long distance running. On March 23, World Athletics announced important rule changes for transgender athletes and “athletes with differences in sex development” (DSD). Previously, these athletes would be subject to drug testing and reduction in male hormone levels during the period six months prior to competition.
Under the new rules, athletes who undergo male puberty are barred from competing as women. This follows the rule adopted last year by World Aquatics, the international governing body for swimming.
World Athletics’ new rules expand on the existing requirements to compete in women’s track and field. The testosterone limit is now 2.5 nmol/L for a minimum of 24 months to compete internationally in the female category in any event. (Previously, this limit applied only to events between 400 meters and a mile). This change affects both male-born athletes and female-born athletes with abnormally high testosterone levels. Such DSD athletes must register for special testing and then maintain low testosterone levels.
The World Athletics Council’s action places the concern for fair competition above considerations of inclusiveness. Sebastian Coe, the CEO of World Athletics and a medal-winning Olympic athlete, said:
“Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations. We will be guided in this by the science around physical performance and male advantage which will inevitably develop over the coming years. As more evidence becomes available, we will review our position, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount.“
The World Athletics Council’s decision is important to Cornell because of the 2022 NCAA Board of Governors decision on transgender eligibility. Rather than the NCAA writing its own universal standard for college athletes seeking to compete as women, the NCAA moved to separate regulations for each sport, deferring to each sport’s national governing body, its international federation (like World Athletics), 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. Swimming’s international federation has already adopted a rule preventing athletes that underwent male puberty to compete as women, and now track and field has done the same.
Most NCAA sports with high visibility and revenues are team sports, but they do not provide a spotlight where one trans athlete can dramatically alter the overall team performance. Realistically, of the high-visibility NCAA individual sports, track and swimming have faced the most scrutiny over the transgender eligibility issue. Although Cornell has a prominent wrestling program, the NCAA currently does not include a separate female wrestling competition. (Female wrestling is a Cornell club sport). Since the rules have been changed for both swimming and track, the political crisis engendered by biological male Lia Thomas’ participation in the University of Pennsylvania’s swimming program appears to be resolved. Currently, there are no known elite trans runners competing as women.
Although the rules for elite competition have changed, the local running community is still welcoming both cis and trans women. Trans females can join the Finger Lakes Running Club, the Cornell Running Club, or the “High Noon” Running Club. There are many local races that are not limited to cis females. For Cornellians that love to run, there are opportunities outside of the NCAA or international elite meets.
Correction: an earlier version of this article misstated Sebastian Coe’s name as “Sebastian Cole.” It has since been corrected.
