Lia Thomas and other transgender athletes are banned by world swimming’s governing body from competing against women: Separate ‘open category’ will be set up

  • Husnain Al-Musallam, president of FINA, announced the news on Sunday
  • He said ‘I don’t want any athlete to be told they cannot compete at highest level’
  • A separate open category will be created for swimming competitions in future 

Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who smashed women’s records this year, will be banned from competing against women in international events.

FINA, the international federation sports federation for swimming, announced on Sunday that it is changing its policies so that transgender women can only compete in women’s races if they have completed their transition by the age of 12.

They will then have to prove to the federation that they have continuously suppressed their testosterone levels since that time.

FINA is now setting up an ‘open category’ for transgender athletes to compete against one another, and a working group will spend the next six months to determine how that would work.

‘We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,’ FINA President Husain Al-Musallam said in a statement.

But such a policy would prevent Thomas from competing in the Olympics, which she has expressed her desire for after she smashed women’s records and caused an uproar across the United States, with many arguing that she has an unfair physical advantage over her fellow competitors.

The decision to ban transgender athletes was made during FINA’s extraordinary general congress on the sidelines of the world championships in Budapest after members heard a report from a transgender task force comprising leading medical, legal and sports figures.

They had convened to discuss the issue after the International Olympic Committee urged individual sports federations to create guidance on transgender athletes in November.

At the time, the IOC urged the federations to shift their focus from individual testosterone levels, and called for evidence to prove when a performance advantage existed.

Husain Al-Musallam, president of FINA, announced the news on Sunday afternoon.

‘I do not want any athlete to be told they cannot compete at the highest level,’ Al-Musallam told a congress of his organization today.

‘I will set up a working group to set up an open category at our meets.

‘We will be the first federation to do that.’

The new policy will require transgender competitors to have completed their transition by the age of 12 in order to be able to compete in women’s competitions.

It was passed with a 71 percent majority after it was put to the members of 152 national federations with voting rights who had gathered for the congress at the Puskas Arena.

Around 15 percent voted no to the policy on eligibility in the men’s and women’s competition categories, while 13 percent abstained.