An integral aspect to a sporting event is to include everybody, as sports sets aside differences such as religion, politics and other sorts of beliefs in order to unite one another.
New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard became the first ever transgender athlete picked to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Hubbard will compete on Monday 2nd August 2021, weightlifting at the super-heavyweight 87+kg in the women's category. In a very controversial decision, Hubbard being biologically male had competed in weightlifting before transitioning and even set a national junior record in 1998. However, she stopped lifting seriously in 2001, she said that when she realised that participating in a traditionally masculine sport would not change who she is. Hubbard transitioned in 2013 and did not return into international weightlifting until 2017.
Belgian weightlifter Anna Vanbellinghen who will also be competing in the same category as Hubbard said that if Hubbard ought to compete in Tokyo Olympics there will be unfairness for women, "like a bad joke". Laurel Hubbard is currently among the top ranked athletes in her category in the world.
Interestingly, Quinn the Canadian football player, a born female, is trans-male now and is still competing with the women's team. If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other sport bodies recognise that a trans-male is at an unfair disadvantage to biological males, yet they can’t recognise the fact that a trans-woman is at an unfair advantage to biological XX females.
OLYMPIC GUIDELINES
In 2004 IOC created rules to allow transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics. The guidelines required athletes who transition from male to female, to have gender reassignment surgery and two years of hormone therapy, this is to eliminate a competitive edge of high testosterone level. For those who transition from female to male were eligible to compete without restriction, as testosterone levels of women are significantly lower than men. (average 15 to 20 times lower).
A year before the 2016 Rio Olympics, these rules were tailored, that female transgender athletes were no longer required to undergo gender reassignment surgery and hormone therapy was reduced to only one year. This change in Olympic rule, helped Laurel Hubbard and she qualified under the new guidelines to compete in Tokyo Olympics 2020.
The IOC guidelines state that “The athlete's total testosterone level must remain below 10 nmol/L throughout the period of desired eligibility to compete in the female category.” (nmol/L is unit of measurement, representing “nanomoles per litre”). Below are testosterone levels of men, trans-women, and women.
FUTURE’S PERSPECTIVE
Testosterone is a male hormone which plays a massive role in sports performance. It is a major factor for the difference of athletic performance between a male and a female athlete. Testosterone creates larger and stronger bones, a greater muscle mass and strength. It also contributes to circulating higher haemoglobin and possibly creates a psychological difference as well. Testosterone is a powerful anabolic hormone which helps significantly in building lean muscle and mass. This tends to boost the generalised strength, especially in areas like the upper body where muscles have more receptors for it.
On average, men have 75% more muscle mass and 90% more strength than females. Though the Olympic requirements pushes trans-women to reduce their testosterone level below 10 nmol/L, it is still way above XX born females, which makes the level of competition unfair for women when competing against trans-women. Olympics, where a fraction of a second or one burst of energy, impacts the medal podium, trans-women have 4 to 20 times (400% to 2,000%) advantage only on the basis of their testosterone level. This means that trans-women competing against XX born females, have an unfair advantage, over rest of the women athletes, of increased strength, muscle mass and endurance. This is harming the present and the future of XX born female athletes as the competition is unbalanced.
In elite athletics, men’s performance results are 10% to 20% better than that of women, and this difference goes up from 30% to 35% in sports like weightlifting, requiring body mass & strength. This advantage becomes huge as the sport’s main aim is strength, in comparison to skill & technique. This change is detrimental to sports and to women athletes. If we just ignore that potential benefit, in future XX born females would not be able to win medals, sports scholarships and profile opportunities to get a platform.
This form of inclusiveness ignores XX born females, women who have put so much hard work and effort to be where they deserve to compete on a levelled field. The equality for women is being completely ignored. Trans-women work very hard, defeating horrible public comments and work hard to be eligible to compete and to practice in their respective sports, however biological females work hard too, sport bodies should not ostracise the efforts of biological females, in order to be inclusive. The future of women's sport will be put in jeopardy, if the playing field is not level.
It’s difficult to have a separate category for trans-athletes as there are so few of them, however they should not compromise just and fairness. Additionally, I believe there should be a stricter guideline for trans-athletes to eliminate the competitive edge. In this discussion we should not obliterate the fact that trans-athletes put so much effort and that they receive a lot of backlashes for being transgender. I understand that sports bodies are just trying to make the sport inclusive and that it is a very difficult task to do so. There must be a better way, which is fair & just, without compromising the future of women athletes and giving chance to all the genders to enjoy & compete. There is a significant room for improvement for sports authorities to be inclusive and be just & fair. Some food for thought…
Sources: BBC, The Guardian, USA Today, University of Utah, David J Handelsman, Angelica L Hirschberg, and Stephane Bermon, Guardian and Sara Chodosh and wikipedia