Rainbow games

The Olympic Games in Paris this year will emphasize LGBTQ inclusion even as organizers struggle to address the inherent problems of transgender sports participation.

The games will feature the return of the Pride House, an LGBTQ-focused lounge that for the first time this year has the backing of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Unofficial Pride Houses have popped up at Olympic Games since 2010 with the exception of those in Sochi, Russia, and Beijing.

The games kick off in just over a week on July 26, with a few openly transgender athletes competing. American Nikki Hiltz is a female middle distance runner who identifies as nonbinary. Hiltz will run in women’s events. A female midfielder for the Canadian soccer team who goes by Quinn will play on the women’s team despite identifying as a man.

The Summer Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 marked the first participation by transgender athletes. Laurel Hubbard, a male in his 40s, competed against women in weightlifting and failed to complete a legitimate lift. Chelsea Wolfe, a man who identifies as a woman, made the U.S. BMX women’s team as an alternate but was not called to compete.

After the 2021 games, the IOC issued a nonbinding Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations. The document replaced 2015 recommendations that said men who identify as women could be allowed to compete in women’s events if their testosterone levels were below a certain level for at least 12 months leading up to to their first competition and throughout the time that they compete. The new framework lets the governing bodies of individual sports set their own standards for participation.

Since then, some Olympic sports have tightened their standards for athletes who identify as transgender. But Kim Russell, a former Lacrosse coach and ambassador for Independent Women’s Forum, said the changes don’t go far enough.

“I think it’s a cop-out by the IOC,” Russell told WORLD. “They don’t want the responsibility, and they are the ones who should be making the decision at the world level to say no.”

World Aquatics, the international governing body over Olympic swimming, issued a policy for eligibility in men’s and women’s athletic categories that allows women who identify as men to play on men’s teams provided they comply with anti-doping requirements. In some World Aquatics sports, a female athlete would have to sign an acknowledgement of the risk of competing in the mens’ categories. To be eligible in women’s events, a man must have suppressed puberty before its onset or age 12, whichever came later, and maintained testosterone levels below a stated amount.

U.S. swimmer Lia Thomas, a man formerly known as William who identifies as a female, challenged this decision and brought a case before the Court of Arbitration for Sports. Thomas would not meet these standards given his physical status as an adult male. Thomas alleged that while some standards for transgender participation are appropriate, these ran contrary to the Olympic Charter and other documents. The Court of Arbitration for Sports dismissed the case, rendering Thomas ineligible for Olympic competition in Paris.

The governing body of Olympic track and field, World Athletics, adopted standards similar to World Aquatics. World Athletics does not bar women who identify as men from competing in the men’s category as long as they follow anti-doping requirements.

The questions about transgender participation in international sports come as the Biden administration works to open up female sports in the United States to male participation by redefining in federal law what “discrimination on the basis of sex” means. Title IX is a U.S. law that ensures equal rights for women in education, but the Biden administration ruled this year to include sexual orientation and gender identity in nondiscrimination requirements.

Former Olympic swimming gold medalist and women’s sports advocate Donna de Varona sees this change as an affront to the goal of Title IX. De Varona swam in the 1960 and 1964 Olympics and has worked in various capacities on Title IX for more than 50 years.

“Where this discussion is unfair is we focus only on the rights of trans athletes, but not on the protection, support of women. Not on the values of fair play. Not on the values of sport,” de Varona told WORLD.

De Varona and Russell, the Lacrosse coach, stressed the importance of recognizing the physical distinctions between men and women in athletics.

Russell, who coached three female athletes who identified as transgender but played on women’s teams, noted that males are physically inclined to be faster, stronger, and less-injury prone than women. Even with hormonal treatment, Russell said, males who continue working out maintain their muscle mass.

“Boys are boys and girls are girls,” de Varona said.