The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) approves a new rule that will close the door to transgender athletes and those with differences in sexual development.
La International Athletics Federation, the World Athletics, has agreed to the introduction of a mandatory genetic testing to be able to participate in the women's categories. The organization has approved the recommendations of the group of experts after having opened a consultation last February on the new guidelines, which in practice mean closing the door to trans women already many women who were born with some difference in sexual development (DSD, as the federation calls them).
"We will tenaciously protect the women's category and do everything necessary to achieve it.", the president of World Athletics, the British Sebastian Coe, at the end of the Council meeting held in Nanking (China)The decision is reached at a time when this issue is once again on the table of the International Olympic Committee after the election of its new president, Kristy Coventry, which is committed to assuming greater leadership in the matter.
At athletics, which in recent years has tightened its eligibility policy, a decision has already been made and from now on, only women with “female biological sex"and those with chromosomes XY but who have androgen insensitivity (i.e., their body does not recognize male hormones such as testosterone). Therefore, female athletes, in order to be authorized, must undergo a prerequisite saliva genetic test to determine the presence or absence of the gene SRY (responsible for the development of male sexual characteristics).
Testosterone
So far, World Athletics (WA), chaired by Sebastian Coe, only allowed trans women to run in international competitions if they had begun their transition before puberty or at the age of 12 and if they maintained a testosterone level below 2,5 nanomoles per liter of blood. For their part, athletes DSD –a term referring to those born with a chromosomal, hormonal, or sexual anatomy level that does not conform to medical and social standards for female and male bodies– could compete if they reduced their testosterone.
The case of the South African athlete is well known. Caster Semenya, what a battle in the European Court of Human Rights because she refuses to undergo treatment to lower the amount of testosterone her body naturally produces. She is not the only one, and neither is athletics the only sport in which these types of rules have been debated for years: during the Paris Olympics The case of the Algerian boxer raised a storm Imane Khelif, about which a campaign of hoaxes fueled by the far right worldwide was unleashed and which was accused of “be a man"for having chromosomes XY.
World Athletics now considers that the rules should be the same for trans women and DSD women.It's important to do this because it maintains everything we've been talking about, not just talking about integrity in women's sport, but actually ensuring it.”He added Coe this Tuesday.
