Finally some sanity in the international sports world. World Athletics—the organization that oversees international track and field events—has issued a decision to ban men, including “transgender” ones, from women’s sports.
World Athletics on Thursday announced its decision to exclude transgender female athletes who have been through male puberty from world rankings competitions.The international governing body for track and field and other running-related athletic events said its decision would have no consequences for athletes right now because there are no transgender athletes competing internationally.”World Athletics conducted a consultation period with various stakeholders in the first two months of this year, including Member Federations, the Global Athletics Coaches Academy and Athletes’ Commission, the IOC as well as representative transgender and human rights groups,” the organization said.”It became apparent that there was little support within the sport for the option that was first presented to stakeholders, which required transgender athletes to maintain their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for 24 months to be eligible to compete internationally in the female category.”In terms of DSD regulations, World Athletics has more than 10 years of research and evidence of the physical advantages that these athletes bring to the female category.
Apparently, the decision is subject to change in the future, based on further study, but as of now, there are no biological men claiming to be women competing at the international level.
Fox News continues:
“However, there are currently no transgender athletes competing internationally in athletics and consequently no athletics-specific evidence of the impact these athletes would have on the fairness of female competition in athletics.”In these circumstances, the Council decided to prioritize fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion.”World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the rules wouldn’t last forever.”We’re not saying no forever,” he said, via BBC.World Athletics said there would be further studies done to consider transgender athletes’ inclusion in sports.. . . . “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,” Coe said. “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.”
Needless to say, people have thoughts:
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