The By-invitation section publishes commentaries from a range of perspectives. For a view against transgender women athletes competing in female sports, read a commentary by Chelsea Mitchell.
IT HAS been nearly 20 years since the Olympics allowed transgender people to compete, and in that time over 54,000 Olympians have taken to the world stage. Yet it is only in the Tokyo games this month that the first openly transgender athletes have joined the parade in national tracksuits under their countries’ flags. The world should cheer even more loudly.
Trans athletes were first allowed to compete in the 2004 games in Athens, under the rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). For the 2016 games in Rio, the IOC removed the requirement that trans athletes have genital surgery. Yet no transgender athletes qualified in 2016 or 2018, though there were over 14,000 competitors.
This year's games will make history with a number of openly transgender Olympians, including Tiffany Abreu, a Brazilian volleyball player; Chelsea Wolfe, an alternate on Team USA’s BMX cycling squad; a Canadian soccer player, Quinn (known only by a first name) and Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand.
Their presence has generated criticism. There is a fear that trans women will dominate women’s sport. However, this is without any basis in fact.
Estimates are that approximately 0.6% of the American adult population is transgender. Taking that figure as a possible global rate, at 54,000 Olympians, statistically you’d expect around 300 trans athletes. And yet until this year, there has been none. There has not been an openly trans world champion in an Olympic sport, nor at major golf or tennis championships, nor holding elite world records. Nothing. If there were any advantages for trans women athletes, surely we’d have seen it by now.
Although no trans athlete has dominated their sport, if one were to do so, wouldn't that be reason to cheer, not jeer?
The IOC is right to allow trans athletes to compete in the Olympics, if it is to remain true to its mission. In the Olympic charter, the fourth fundamental principle of Olympism reads: “The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”
From the standpoint of human rights, sport is welcoming of all people. And transgender women are women in the ways that matter. Governments and sports organisations, such as the IOC, almost universally make no distinction between gender and sex. In my case, my Canadian birth certificate, driver’s licence, passport, American permanent-resident card and medical records all list me as female. Every sport organisation under which I compete, such as USA Cycling, Cycling Canada and Union Cycliste Internationale, considers me female.
Those who do make such a distinction between sex and gender tend only to do so in order to exclude trans women from so-called “female-only” spaces, including sport. They are wrong to do so. It is simply inconsistent and hypocritical to grant that trans women are “women” but not “female” and that trans women should not compete against "female" athletes. Such distinctions between women and female are rarely made among governments and sports organisations. As far as the IOC is concerned, all of the trans and intersex women competing in Tokyo are female, full stop.
Sadly, the dominant narrative in the media and across social media—where the loudest, angriest voices are amplified—is one of outrage. Some believe that including trans women will lead to the end of women’s sport as it exists. Some critics point to me, a trans woman who has two masters track-cycling gold medals from 2018 and 2019. But it is worth noting that the victory was in an age category (35 to 39), not an overall world championship. And although I previously held a masters world record, it was recently beaten and remains more than 10% slower than the elite (ie, not age restricted) world record.
There are some people who say that they support trans women to live our lives as women in whatever way we choose, except for in their favourite hobby-horse area of exclusion. It might be bathrooms and changing rooms. Sports is just the latest battlefield. The reason for exclusion is, in short, discrimination.
Apparently we’re not “woman” enough, whatever that means. It is a very slippery slope. Women are only this year being permitted to compete in Olympic canoeing events. Women were not included in Olympic ski jumping until 2014. Zhang Shan, a woman, won the 1992 Olympic skeet shooting event, which was gender integrated—she beat men. But in the 1996 Olympics, the IOC gender-segregated the sport and didn’t offer a woman’s division: the defending Olympic champion wasn’t allowed to compete. Women’s cycling events are shorter than men’s, for no obvious reason.
If you really care about women’s sport, support women’s sport: donate to women’s sport programmes. Push for equal pay for women’s sporting events. Press for a full reinstatement of a women’s Tour de France, not the pared down version happening in 2022. Fight misogyny, in all its forms, including against transgender women. If the only way you claim to support women’s sport is by fighting to exclude trans women, then I posit that you don’t actually care about women’s sport.
The Olympic spirit is one of mutual understanding, of bridging differences. I invite people everywhere to reflect on the Olympic ideal, laid out in its charter: “Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles”.
Fairness requires inclusion. Let’s stop policing womanhood, in all its diversity. Let’s celebrate the fact that trans women are women in the ways that matter. We should applaud the barriers being broken by the first openly transgender athletes to attend the Olympics this year. Breaking barriers is what the Olympics is all about.
Veronica Ivy (formerly Rachel McKinnon) is the first openly transgender world track-cycling champion, having placed first in the spring event at the UCI Women’s Masters Track World Championship in 2018 and 2019 in her age category. She is an independent scholar and consultant for diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly on issues related to athlete rights.