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The transgender sport debate exploded this week after FINA,
world swimming's governing body, voted to restrict the
participation of transgender competitors in women's competition
and establish an "open" category, a move widely opposed by LGBT
rights advocates.
Following FINA's decision many other sport federations,
including world soccer's governing body FIFA and World Athletics
have moved to review their transgender eligibility policies.
The International Olympic Committee said in November no athlete
should be excluded from competition on the grounds of a
perceived unfair advantage, while leaving it up to sports
International Federations (IF) to decide where the balance lay
between inclusion and fairness.
USOPC Chair Susanne Lyons said her organisation would also leave
it up to the IFs and National Governing Bodies (NGBs) to develop
policies but expects to be part of the discussion.
"I think we would all agree there are no perfect solutions to
this very complex issue," said Lyons, whose term as CEO comes to
an end in January. "Things need to be decided at the federation
level.
"We're not the decision makers on what the policies will be but
we do feel that we do have an obligation to be informed and
educated and provide whatever tools our NGBs need as they work
with their IFs to try to develop their own policy."
Advocates for transgender inclusion argue that not enough
studies have yet been done on the impact of transition on
physical performance, and that elite athletes are often physical
outliers in any case.
Balancing the Olympic Movement's core values of safety, fairness
and inclusion with individual rights of athletes, however, is a
tricky equation.
"Part of inclusion is the individual right of an athlete to
compete," Lyons said. "Those a values are at odds in this
particular instance.
"Not everyone agrees. Even in our own board I would say we are
not yet aligned on if one those values or more need to take
precedence over another," she added.
"We do not have all the answers, we don't even have all the
agreements yet but we will try to provide as much support as
possible to our partner NGBs as they struggle to set policy on
this."
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, Editing by Ed Osmond)
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