“Discriminatory, harmful and unscientific”: FINA Ruling against Lia Thomas, other transgender athletes faces backlash

The controversy over transgender swimmer Lia Thomas has been making headlines for quite some time now, sparking a debate in the sports world. However, a recent FINA Ruling has changed it all.

This new FINA rule will block Thomas from participating at all. The new FINA Ruling states that eligibility for male-to-female transgender athletes at competitions will only be if “they can establish to FINA’s comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 (of puberty) or before age 12, whichever is later”.

“We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,” said FINA President Husain Al-Musallam according to Reuters.com. The FINA voted to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in women’s competitions, and are said to be working on an ‘open’ category where they can compete instead.

Also read: “He is mentally ill”-  UPenn swimmer talks about Lia Thomas’s GMA interview

Lia Thomas finds support amidst FINA Ruling backlash

While there has been an extremely large amount of support for the FINA ruling, there has also been some backlash. “FINA’s new eligibility criteria for transgender athletes and athletes with intersex variations is discriminatory, harmful, unscientific and not in line with the 2021 IOC principles. If we truly want to protect women’s sports, we must include all women,” Athlete Ally, an advocacy group for trans people’s inclusion in sports said in a tweet.

Human Rights Campaign Interim President Joni Madison also spoke about the decision. “We urge the FINA to rethink its policy and ensure inclusion for all athletes — including transgender women – and allow them to participate in sports free from discrimination, abuse and harassment.”  Other twitter users also came to the support of transgender athletes. Female-to-male transgender athletes will be eligible to compete in the men’s category.

Also read: “Had nothing to lose” – Shanya Jack clinches World Championships gold in fairytale

Also read: “Couldn’t be happier” – Katie Ledecky re-claims her 400m freestyle crown at World Championships

Stay Updated!

Join our newsletter to receive exclusive updates and curated insights directly to your inbox.

Subscribe NOW