Trans women to be banned from female athletics

TRANSGENDER women have been banned from competing in the female category at international athletics events.

The decision was made by World Athletics yesterday in order to ‘prioritise fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion’.

Seb Coe, the governing body’s president, also confirmed athletes from Russia and Belarus would continue to be excluded from competition, including the Olympics, due to the war on Ukraine.

That puts World Athletics in conflict with the International Olympic Committee, who are exploring a pathway for Russian and Belarusians to compete at Paris 2024 as ‘neutrals’.

On the new transgender participation rules, Lord Coe said at a press conference in Monaco: ‘ The World Athletics council has taken the decisive action to protect the female category in our sport.

‘The council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female world ranking competitions from March 31 this year.

‘The decision that the council made is a primarily principlebased decision and that is the overarching need to protect the female category. This is what our sport is here to do.’ Under previous rules, transgender women could compete in the female category as long as their testosterone levels were below five nanomoles per litre of blood over a one-year period.

In January, World Athletics said they wanted to tighten their policy and that their ‘preferred option’ was to cut testosterone levels to 2.5 nanomoles per litre and increase the transition period to two years.

That led to a backlash from female athletes and women’s rights campaigners who wanted a ban on transgender athletes competing against other women. And yesterday, the World Athletics council admitted there was ‘little support’ for their original stance. Lord Coe said it was guided by ‘our overarching principle, which is to protect the female category.’

British Olympic runner Emily Diamond, tweeted: ‘Thank you for following the science World Athletics [and] Seb Coe. A big step for fairness and protecting the female category.’