Transgender women in competitive sport

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www.theguardian.com

Coe warns transgender athletes pose risk to integrity of women’s sport

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has called on the International Olympic Committee to introduce new regulations governing transgender athletes
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Asked how important the challenge of transgender women is in athletics, Lord Coe said: “I think that the integrity of women’s sport – if we don’t get this right – and actually the future of women’s sport, is very fragile.”
 
NRLW:
'As of Wednesday, all 150 women in the NRLW became free agents and, as could only happen when the NRL and Rugby League Players Association clunked heads together, they have opened the trade window for the new competition beginning in August, just as the finals are about to begin for the current season.

And it is understood at least one transgender player is considering trialling.

This is hurried news for the NRL.'

'Once upon a time, when the hair was a little thicker and we still believed in this notion of sport as a fair playing field, athletes busted with performance-enhancing drugs were outed for four years because the science said it took four years before the benefits of a drug program had left the body.

It was later reduced to two, not for fair play reasons, but mainly because sports like World Athletics campaigned that the absence of their star athletes, sidelined and serving suspensions, were too long and damaging the sport.

Yet it still remains two years for a drug positive but one year for transitioning.'


The presence of a transgender athlete wanting to play in the NRLW is inevitable, and closer than most think.

Yet the NRL will have a tougher time than other sports like swimming and tennis and even weightlifting, where New Zealand heavyweight lifter Laurel Hubbard dominates competition after transitioning, because there is an extra level of complexity.

When does safety become an issue?

Swimming is a non-contact sport, as are tennis and weightlifting.

If a tall, 100kg transgender athlete is about to trial for a contract in the new competition later this season, when the contracting period opens in June, and for which there is a strong chance of it happening, where does the games sit?

As of Friday, the NRL was still trying to finalise its position.'
 
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