“Biology trumps gender” – World Athletics president Sebastian Coe favours “fairness” over the inclusion
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Sebastian Coe favors fairness over inclusion
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe spoke in favour of the hardline approach adopted by the swimming’s governing body stating that the track and field may also follow their guidelines. The World Athletics will re-examine their transgender guidelines and the end of the year and updates will be given on the new curated sports rule. Things are expected to take a turn after hearing president Sebastian Coe is in favour of the ruling.
In the last week, FINA voted that trans women who “experienced any part of male puberty” can no longer take part in female events which took a turn from the marked departure of the prevailing stances of Olympic sports. FINA also announced on Sunday that they intend to set up an “open category” to allow transgender athletes to compete in a separate class. The ruling came in response to American swimmer Lia Thomas being recognized as the first known transgender athlete to win an elite U.S collegiate title in March.
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World Athletics president Sebastian Coe favours “fairness” over the inclusion
Though World Athletics ruled that transgender people can participate if she has a testosterone level below 5 nmol/L continuously for a period of at least 12 months to 6 months longer than certified in their regulations around athletes with different sexual development. Sebastian Coe is in the belief that “biology trumps gender”. Though the decision has not been made yet, it is reported that by the end of the year the World Athletics will look over its guidelines.
As stated on dailymail.co.uk, Coe said, ‘We see an international federation asserting its primacy in setting rules, regulations, and policies that are in the best interest of its sport. This is as it should be.” “We have always believed, and repeated constantly that biology trumps gender and we will continue to review our regulations in line with this.” His point is backed by testosterone research around the DSD case on the track and field which was challenged by a lengthy case with Caster Semenya.
When asked if the World Athletics will approve of this stance, Coe stated, ‘We have always said our regulations in this area are a living document, specific to our sport and we will follow the science.” He insisted that he will see that fairness will always come before inclusion in the case of female athletes. He continued, ‘My responsibility is to protect the integrity of women’s sport and we take that very seriously, and if it means that we have to make adjustments to protocols going forward, we will.”
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Kaushani Chatterjee
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