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MEXICO CITY, Mexico. On March 23 World Athletics , the governing body for global athletics, banned trans women from participating in all international competitions. The new "eligibility measures" also affect intersex women and women who naturally have elevated testosterone levels. The new regulations will go into effect on March 31, Transgender Day of Visibility .

"The Council decided to prioritize equity and integrity in women's competition over inclusion," said the body's president, Sebastian Coe.

In a statement , World Athletics (WA) said the reasons for banning trans women from participating are “guided by the overarching principle of protecting the female category.”

At the same time, the WA asserts that: "There are currently no transgender athletes competing internationally in athletics, and consequently, there is no athletic-specific evidence of the impact these athletes would have on the fairness of women's athletics competition."

At the Olympic level, only one trans woman has been allowed to compete. At Tokyo 2020, Laurel Hubbard became the first trans woman to compete in the Olympic Games. Her tenure was brief, as she failed all three attempts at lifting in the women's heavyweight division.

This new regulation will also affect intersex women and those who naturally express high levels of testosterone. Their participation will be subject to maintaining a testosterone level of no more than 2.5 nanomoles per liter in blood for two years before and during any international competition.

What do these regulations entail? What impact might they have on transgender people who participate in sports? 

“Regulations must be in compliance with human rights”

In November 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published a new “ framework on equity, inclusion and non-discrimination based on gender identity and sex variance, ” with eligibility criteria for women taking center stage.

The document states that "there is no scientific consensus on how testosterone affects performance in sports, and the role it plays in measuring unfair advantage is unclear because performance is measured differently in each sport."

The IOC determined that each sports federation must establish its own eligibility criteria to regulate participation in the women's and men's categories. They must do so "in compliance with human rights, with solid scientific evidence that considers the context and ensures the well-being of athletes."

World Athletics' new eligibility regulations only issued criteria for women. 

A sexist and racist regulation 

This is not the first time that World Athletics (WA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have sought to regulate the participation of female athletes in elite competitions by monitoring their bodies. 

Since 1940, the World Athletics Federation has violated the human rights of female athletes with “sex tests” and “femininity certificates” for eligibility purposes. This forced athletes to undergo gynecological and physical examinations and other degrading practices, as revealed by the investigation “ They Are Driving Us Away From Sport”: Human Rights Violations in Sex Testing of Elite Female Athletes , conducted by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

According to our report, we found that from 2009 to the present, these types of regulations have been systematically applied to women of color. At least ten elite athletes have made public that their professional careers have been affected by these regulations. 

They are: Caster Semenya of South Africa; Dutee Chand of India; Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi; Maximila Imali and Margaret Wambui of Kenya; Aminatou Seyni of Nigeria; Annet Negesa of Uganda; Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi of Namibia; and Cece Telfer, a Black trans woman from the United States, was denied entry in Tokyo 2020.  

In the article "Would Caster Semenya Have Been Banned If She Were White?", written by Ruby Hamad, a Syrian journalist and PhD candidate in media and postcolonial studies, she comments that the perception of the bodies of Black athletes and other racialized women has been driven by 19th-century scientific racism. It determined that being a "real" woman meant being white, European, or of European descent.

And she adds, “The fact that the application of the sex binary is now being used not only to exclude trans women from womanhood, but to justify the exclusion of high-performance cisgender athletes already has implications for Black athletes who are deemed 'too masculine' to compete with them, more 'feminine' (read: white) runners.”

UN: "These are unnecessary, humiliating, and harmful mechanisms."

For HRW, these practices cause physical, psychological, and economic harm to athletes. Success in athletics often means improving their living conditions.

Furthermore, HRW notes that “identifying female athletes through observation and suspicion is a way of policing women's bodies based on arbitrary definitions of femininity and racial stereotypes.”

The UN has described these exclusion mechanisms as "unnecessary, humiliating, and harmful." It explicitly recognizes that there is a particular form of discrimination in sport against Black women and girl athletes from the Global South.

Under the rhetoric of seeking "equality and equity in sports," World Athletics and other sports federations such as the International Swimming Federation (FINA) today exclude and regulate women's participation, discriminating based on race, gender identity, and diverse sexual orientations.

The ban on transgender people in sports is not exclusive to elite sports. 

The impact on trans people

In recent years, there has been an argument, without conclusive scientific basis, that transgender women's participation in sports represents an alleged "unfair advantage" for cisgender women. This narrative has been used not only by sports federations but also by anti-rights groups in decision-making positions.

“Every time an International Federation makes a policy banning trans athletes, we see a trickle-down effect on other policies,” Chris Mosier, an athlete and founder of Trans Athlete , a platform seeking trans inclusion in sports in the United States, statement

He added, “The real impact will be felt by young athletes around the world who are now unable to pursue their athletic dreams and are bombarded with messages from sports organizations and lawmakers telling them they don't belong and don't deserve the same opportunities as their peers to experience the joy, connections, and camaraderie that comes with playing sports.” 

Currently, 19 states in the United States prohibit girls, young women, and trans women from participating in school sports and competitions. All of these policies apply at the elementary level, and 15 of them extend to the high school and college levels.

These laws primarily target trans girls and women. The way they seek to prohibit their participation promotes suspicion and surveillance of their bodies. This directly affects and further disempowers girls, young women, and women (both trans and cis). 

The Transgender Law Center says that the participation of trans children and youth in gender-aligned sports can provide "a tremendous boost to their self-confidence and self-esteem, leadership skills, and positive experiences that will help them in all other areas of their lives."

Ensuring a place for trans people in elite sports and at the school level could influence trans children, youth, and adults to have positive role models so they don't have to give up the sport they love just because of who they are, and to work in their sport without fear of achieving the Olympic dream.