By Marcella Mwinkoma Babing
The International Olympic Committee on November, 2021 introduced the IOC framework on fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations which served as guidelines that allowed international sports federations to create their own rules regarding transgender and intersex athlete participation.
The purpose of this framework was to encourage an inclusion and non-discrimination system that ensured athletes are not prohibited exclusively on the basis of their transgender identity or sex variations ensuring fairness and safety for all participants. However, the framework placed biological females in a disadvantage position in the female Olympic category.
Although the Transgender women athletes transitioned after male puberty, their genetic benefits were still retained which kept them in a competitive advantage over biological females such as greater muscle mass and Strength which are essential for explosive power and speed, high hemoglobin count and larger lung and heart volumes, that makes the male body transport and use oxygen more efficiently, leading to a greater natural advantage in endurance over women.
These genetic benefits were not wholly reversed by the hormone therapy and as a result of that transgender women became the key stakeholders of the female category instead of the biological females. Gender identity overshadowed biological sex.
On Thursday March 26, The International Olympic Committee introduced a new policy emphasizing that, the policy is strictly based on science, and it has been led by medical experts with the best interests of athletes at its heart.
They furthur explained that, the scientific evidence proved that, the Male chromosomes give performance advantages in sports that rely on strength, power or endurance at the Olympic Games and even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat.
“The scientific evidence is very clear. Male chromosomes give performance advantages in sports that rely on strength, power or endurance. At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So it’s absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”
This new policy establishes a fair female-only category that acknowledges the hard-work and resilience of biological females yielding to an increase in visibility and opportunities as they prepare the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games and onwards.
