The International Swimming Federation (FINA) has approved in its extraordinary world congress a new sober generosity policy that proposes the creation of a new open category where transsexual athletes who do not meet the requirements to compete as women can compete.
The new measures put an end to cases such as that of Lia Thomas, the American who has caused an earthquake in American university swimming after starting a sixth-grade resignation treatment and starting to compete as a woman.
With its new policy, FINA will now restrict the female category to those athletes who have been legally declared as women and who have completed their gender waiver treatment before the age of 12, that is, without having experienced any part of male puberty. .
In all cases, the testosterone levels of these athletes must always be below 2,5 nanomoles per liter in order to compete in international events and opt for building records.
"We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness in our events, especially the women's category," Husain Al-Musallam, President of FINA, said after the Congress in Budapest. “FINA will welcome all athletes. The creation of an open category will mean that everyone has the opportunity to compete at an elite level. This has not been done before, so FINA will have to lead the way. I want all athletes to feel included so I can develop ideas during this process.”
FINA created a working group in November last year that included athletes, doctors, scientists and legal and human rights experts. The conclusions of this group were presented to the executive committee of the Federation, which had to have the Extraordinary World Congress for its approval. The new policy received the support of 71,5% of congressmen.
The measures adopted by FINA come months after the scandal involving the participation of Lia Thomas in the women's events of the American university circuit. Thomas, 22 years old, had competed as a man without great results before starting the sex resignation treatment, when she began to do it as a woman, where in a few months she had managed to get a university degree.
This appearance provoked an intense debate in American society and the majority rejection of the swimming restaurant, which considers that Thomas still benefited from his former condition as a man to get his marks.
The new FINA policy will take effect this Monday, June 20.
