THE TRANS FRONT LINE MOVES TO AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIA is looming as the next battleground in swimming’s murky attempt to find a solution to one of the biggest dilemmas in world sport. Swimming’s global leaders have already decided to ban transgender athletes from competing in elite women’s races, but there’s more to come. FINA also promised to create an additional “open” division for trans athletes who don’t fit into the traditional gender categories - the unknown game changer that a lot of other sports are relying on before implementing their own policies. How that works remains under wraps for now, but the world will get their first unveiling in Australia at the end of this year.
That’s because when Russia was stripped of hosting rights for this year’s short course world championships in reaction to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, FINA moved the event to Melbourne in December. But in doing so, swimming’s world governing body also awarded something else to the Victorian capital - the annual FINA Congress.
That’s where the sport’s biggest decisions are made. And one of the biggest items is FINA’s plans to create an “open” division - something no sport has ever done before.
The new category will ensure that athletes who meet the eligibility criteria will be able to compete regardless of their sex, their legal gender or their gender identity.
It’s uncertain yet whether a final recommendation will be presented to the congress because officials are adamant any decision of this magnitude won’t be rushed. But News Corp understands the goal is for the allimportant framework to be completed in time for the congress.
A working group, likely to involve industry-leading specialists from all over the world - including scientists, human-rights advocates, lawyers and athletes - is being assembled.
It’s understood this group will meet for the first time in August.
Given the issue is so politically divisive, the congress could easily become a flashpoint for protests, now that the first details are emerging.
In an interview with News Corp, FINA’s chief executive Brent Nowicki agreed to provide an exclusive insight into the planning taking place right now, including the surprise revelation about where the idea came from.
“It’s not an easy area to tackle, but I’ve started to think a little bit about how does it look? How does it feel? How will it be welcomed to the community?” he said.
“It was the athletes themselves that said trans individuals should be able to compete, we should find a space for them to compete, but we just must protect the competitive fairness of our male and female events.
“And that was steadfast. It wasn’t looking at everybody because we had people who were opposed to it as well. But certainly the open category resonated through a lot of athletes.”
FINA members, representing more than 150 countries, voted 71 per cent in favour of the initial policy banning transgender women, though the rules only apply at FINA-sanctioned events, including the Olympics and world championships.
“We’ll probably reach out to athletes and see if they’re willing to work on a focus group and share their thoughts and opinions and technical officials especially to figure out how does it work on the pool deck and what are we looking at,” Nowicki said.
“What’s that standard look like? Is it some kind of blending standard or what events do we do it in? All of our events? Some of our events?”