Gender | Can trans women swim competitively in women's divisions? The Court of Arbitration for Sport is considering one swimmer's appeal

Ten thousand The case before the CAS of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport was registered in September of last year, but information about it came to the CAS to the website only at the end of January.

“Miss Thomas accepts that fair competition is a legitimate goal in sport and that some sort of regulation of trans women is appropriate. However, Ms. Thomas considers that the rules she is challenging are invalid and discriminate against her,” CAS informed.

Miss Thomas stands for American trans woman and swimmer Lia Thomasiaand the rules she's challenging are the International Swimming Federation's regulations on eligibility for gender-based events.

According to the federation, trans women can compete in swimming in women's divisions only if they have corrected their gender before turning 12 years old.

International the swimming federation, like other international sports federations, had to take a stand on the participation rights of transgender people after the International Olympic Committee Kok renewed its regulations on gender-based series in November 2021.

Under previous rules, trans women had to lower their testosterone levels for at least a year in order to compete in the women's series. This made it possible for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics to feature what is known to be the first transwoman weightlifter from New Zealand in Olympic history Laurel Hubbardwho before the gender correction had competed in the men's series.

In Kok's current rules, there are no longer testosterone limits, and the responsibility for determining the right to participate has been transferred to international sports federations more than before.

This has led to stricter restrictions on the right to participate in some sports than before. In addition to the International Swimming Federation, the International Athletics Federation has banned trans women who have gone through male puberty from participating in the women's series.

About Lia Thomas became an international celebrity in the last race of his university career. In March 2022, she became the first openly transgender swimmer to win a US NCAA collegiate championship. Thomas was the fastest in the women's 500-yard freestyle.

Thomas' victory attracted worldwide attention. She has been praised as a promoter of the inclusion of trans women, but her participation in the women's series also attracted loud opposition.

Hungarian Reka György finished 17th with 500 yards won by Thomas and posted an open letter, in which she criticized the NCAA for allowing a trans woman to compete against “biological women.” Sixteen members of Lia Thomas' own swim team at the University of Pennsylvania sent the school a letter drawn up by a lawyer the letterwhich said Thomas has an unfair advantage and should not be allowed to compete.

Caitlyn Jennerwho won the Olympic decathlon gold in 1976 As Bruce Jenner and corrected her gender to female in 2015, publicly opposed the right of Lia Thomas and trans women in general to participate in women's leagues in competitive sports.

“I believe in fairness, and it just wasn't fair that he got to compete with women. I've gone through male puberty, I know,” Jenner said.

Also Thomas has gone through male puberty. He entered the University of Pennsylvania swim team as a male before starting hormone replacement therapy in May 2019. According to NCAA rules, Thomas had to lower his testosterone levels for a year before he could compete in the women's division.

Depending on the sport, men's physical performance is ten to even fifty percent higher than women's, they report Emma N. Hilton and Tommy R. Lundberg published in 2021 in the composite study. In swimming, the results of male elites are on average 10-12 percent faster than women's.

According to the study, trans women maintain a significant advantage over cisgender women even after testosterone lowering treatment – but testosterone lowering disappeared from Kok's rules in November 2021.

With cisgender people is meant people who feel that their gender identity corresponds to the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people are cisgender.

As a man while swimming, Thomas was the 65th fastest 500-yard freestyle in the US university series in the 2018-2019 season. After changing her gender to female, she won the same distance in the women's category.

Thomas has told of his dream to aspire to the Paris Olympics, and the appeal to the International Court of Arbitration for Sport is apparently an attempt to get to the Games.

Already in the summer of 2022, Thomas reacted strongly to the International Swimming Federation's decision to exclude trans women from the women's series.

“It's discriminatory and hurts all women,” Thomas said then.

After the International Swimming Federation had decided to prevent transgender women from participating in the women's series, it opened an open, third series for the
World Cup contested in Berlin in August 2022, in which transgender people could participate.

Not a single swimmer registered for the series.