Caitlyn Jenner Calls Transgender Athlete Ban In Swimming ‘Fair’
Topics: Caitlyn Jenner, Sport
Stewart Perrie
Featured Image Credit: Joe Martinez / PictureLux. Paolo Bona / Alamy Stock Photo
Topics: Caitlyn Jenner, Sport
Caitlyn Jenner has responded to the announcement that transgender women will be banned from competing in female swimming events.
Fina, swimming's world governing body, voted over the weekend to restrict transgender swimmers from competing in women's elite events.
The organisation took its vote on the matter during an extraordinary general congress at the World Championships in Budapest, where 152 Fina members submitted their decision on the matter.
A total of 71 percent of voters opted to stop trans athletes from competing in women's elite races if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty, meaning transgender competitors will have now had to have completed their transition by the age of 12 - i.e. have had male puberty suppressed by hormone blockers - in order to compete.
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The decision has sparked a wave of reactions and Caitlyn Jenner, who has been very outspoken on the matter, has thrown her two cents in.
Writing on Twitter, the former Olympian said: "It worked! I took a lot of heat - but what’s fair is fair! If you go through male puberty you should not be able to take medals away from females. Period."
Jenner has called on swimming for months to make a call on the topic and claimed it's unfair for cis-gendered females to compete against trans swimmers.
She wrote on social media earlier this year: "All of this woke world that we are living in right now is not working.
"I feel sorry for the other athletes that are out there, especially at Penn or anybody she's competing against, because in the woke world, you've got to say, 'Oh, my gosh, this is great,' No, it's not."
Jenner was reacting to transgender swimmer Lia Thomas smashing several women's records last year.
Caitlyn went on to explicitly state 'biological boys should not compete against biological girls'.
Now she has got her wish, kind of.
Rather than excluding transgender women from swimming altogether, the governing body will aim to establish an 'open' category at competitions for those whose gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth.
The vote took place after Fina members heard a report from a transgender task force that included leading figures from the world of medicine, law and sport. For the last few months, the organisation has been working to try and come up with competition standards for transgender athletes.
Including transgender women in swimming became a point of contention for many after Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender woman to win a NCAA Division I women's swimming title earlier this year.
Thomas has expressed plans to continue competing after she finished college, though the new regulations could have a major impact on her ability to do so.