World Swimming Coaches Association Announces Stance on Transgender AthletesMadeline Leesman
May 16, 2022
On Friday, the World Swimming Coaches Association (WSCA) released its official position on transgender athletes. This comes after biological male swimmer Will “Lia” Thomas made headlines for competing on the women’s swim team at University of Pennsylvania after competing on the men’s team for three consecutive years. At the NCAA women’s swimming championships in March, Thomas came in first place in a race against female swimmers, as Townhall covered.
The WSCA’s position is that the “grounds of fairness” in swimming cannot be maintained with the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports. This was published in a lengthy statement on the organization’s website.
For the sport of swimming, the inclusion of transgender people on the grounds of fairness cannot co-exist in the current competitive model. Swimming should choose to offer competition in which the female category is protected for reasons of competitive fairness.
In many deliberations that are currently taking place within sports, the concept of an ‘Open’ division is touted widely – one where Biological Males and Transgender Females would race in one division or categorization. However, there is a view that the use of an ‘Open’ option merely ‘puts the Trans problem away’. With an Open division, Trans females swimming against biological males may not even make the required time standards to be able to enter certain events/meets. Additionally, Trans males competing against biological males does not raise a concern in terms of performance imbalance within the biological sexes. An Open competition takes care of the issue we face, but we also have to ask if it takes care of the athletes holistically.
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Source:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2022/05/16/world-swimming-coaches-association-announces-stance-on-transgender-athletes-n2607335
