'PROTECTING FEMALE SPORTS:' Transgender athletes face sweeping Olympics ban

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Transgender athletes could find themselves banned from competing in women’s sports at the Olympics if either of the leading candidates to become president of the International Olympic Committee get the top job.

World Athletics, headed by president Lord Coe, has implemented strict measures for transgender athletes competing as women, ruling that athletes must reduce or maintain their testosterone level to below 2.5 nanomoles per litre, the Telegraph reported.

That has rendered Caster Semenya, the gold medallist in the 800m at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics and three-time winner at the World Championships, ineligible, according to the publication.

Coe, a leading contender to succeed Thomas Bach as IOC president, has accused the governing body of lacking a clear transgender policy.

Individual sports were able to set their own rules during the Paris Olympics last year, but that resulted in different policies that prevented/allowed anyone who had gone through male puberty to compete.

For example, athletics and swimming competitors were ineligible, while women’s footballers were potentially eligible.

There are also differences between the various sports regarding an athlete’s sexual development.

Meanwhile, another leading candidate is Kirsty Coventry, who supports a gender policy that would prevent trans women from competing in female categories.

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Coventry — a member of the IOC executive board since 2018 and the most decorated Olympian from Africa, winning seven medals, including two golds, for Zimbabwe in swimming — has backed a blanket ban, according to the Telegraph.

“Protecting the female category and female sports is paramount — it’s a priority that we collectively come together,” Coventry said.

“There is more and more scientific research,” she continued. “We are not having a conversation about how it is detrimental to men’s sport.”

Coventry added: “That, in itself, says we need to protect women’s sport. It is very clear that transgender women are more able in the female category, and can take away opportunities that should be equal for women.”