World Aquatics’s new open category is a welcome development
World Aquatics has just announced plans to set up an open category for elite swimmers, possibly as early as this year. This welcome and progressive development fosters both inclusion and the integrity of women’s swimming.
Last year FINA — as the organisation was then known — barred transgender swimmers from competing in women’s elite races and setting women’s world records. If, that is, they had gone through male puberty. That would certainly have disqualified Lia Thomas, a college swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2021, Thomas provoked widespread and justifiable outrage after making the switch from male to female competition, leaving women to compete for second place.
But it should be noted that Thomas was not banned from swimming. FINA was clear about that in its 2022 policy: “male-to-female transgender athletes (transgender women) remain eligible for, and are welcome to compete in, the men’s category whether or not they are suppressing their endogenous androgens.”
The new open category should remove any confusion, genuine or contrived. World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam explained that “nobody should be excluded from our competitions.” Open competition is just that, so there should be no barrier for trans women or people of either sex who identify as non-binary. A separate female category then provides fair competition for women.
Unfortunately, Al-Musallam did not go into detail regarding eligibility for the female category. Last year’s FINA policy included male swimmers “if they can establish to FINA’s comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later.”
In my view, that was a grave error. Firstly, sex differences do not start at puberty; and secondly, it puts pre-pubescent boys at potential risk of harm from repressive regimes that care more about winning medals than the lives of their athletes.
Swim England’s new “open and female” policy is much better. From September, “only athletes who have declared a birth sex of female will compete in the ‘female’ category.” This will apply for all events licensed by Swim England, where times are submitted to official rankings or talent pathway competitions. Pressure needs to be placed on the world governing body to get on board with that language.
While “open and female” categories protect women’s sport, they do leave men without a competition to call their own. That said, male swimmers are unlikely to give up any records or medals in swimming, certainly at the elite level governed by World Aquatics. It’s not inconceivable that a trans woman or a non-binary swimmer — of the male sex — could win races in the open category. But whatever labels they might claim, they cannot identify out of their sex.
Debbie Hayton
* This article was first published by Unherd on 26 July 2023: Swimming may have found an answer to the trans question.
Debbie Hayton 
18 replies on “Swimming may have found an answer to the trans question”
I think the justifiable backlash based on biology and science first, then what is right and proper in people’s perceptions, has finally sunk in. Why should biological females have to ‘budge up’ and ‘be the better person’ for a skewed policy that is being manipulated by the male failures who can’t make it against their peers. They have twisted this mad woke culture of ‘inclusivity and equality’ for all to mean women are ousted and prohibited from participating fairly. Plus women are labeled bigots when they complain! The outrage is wholly justifiable. It cannot be ignored. I am positive that Lia/Will Thomas will soon ditch his fake female persons and ‘rediscover’ his masculinity.
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I agree with you, Fiona. I have been wondering how long it would take “Lia” Thomas to transform himself into a man again. It’s possible he may wait a few years in order to forestall the inevitable controversy. It’s also possible he may rediscover his maleness sooner, but stay out of the public eye, The absurd thing is that his motives were so transparent. He made himself a laughing stock.
Although I’m contemptuous of it, I can understand Thomas’s selfishness. What I can’t understand are women like Megan Rapinoe who are in favor of she-males like Thomas invading women’s sports. A few years ago I read about a female college coach who was thrilled to have trans women on her team because it improved their chances of winning.
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Yes, I agree with you on all counts. Lia/Will and the plethora of men who are blatantly pretending to be female have just shown the trend for the farce that it is, and the fact that, shamefully, the establishment of govt and society has lapped up this great deception as if it is immutable truth. This is about ‘getting ahead’ for many but just desperate attempts by also as many insignificant or mediocre people to have their 15 minutes of fame. To be told they are ‘stunning and brave’ seems to be considered the pinnacle of their life’s achievement. Any man who identifies as a woman knows full well he was born and will die a man. The worrying part is when youngsters fall into this easy mode for winning medals at school and then assume they have the right to invade the girls’ changeroom because they are now considered female. Of course, everyone knows that a teen male’s thoughts are clearly on ‘seeing the girls change’ more than anything else. My blood boils when I read the papers and the media refers to the man as she/her. Megan Rapine is a horrible woman. She is coarse, unrefined, ill-mannered, and rough as a badger’s bum (as my dad would say.) She is no friend to female sportswomen and don’t forget she also like to court controversy for publicity’s sake. Thank goodness she has retired. We don’t need her like representing women. I also agree that it is about winning. Lia/Will Thomas’s coach was all about defeating the other college teams of women, not considering the impact it was having on female sporting times. Sport has lost its raison d’etre.
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To you, Debbie, let me say that I think this solution is too simple and elegant to be adopted too widely. Also, men are a jealous bunch, and even though they will have to problem defeating any person who is trans, I don’t think they will give up their category name (Men) either happily or willingly.
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have to problem = have NO problem
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The World has to wake up to the possibilty in Physical Competitions of MAB (Male at Birth), FAB (Female at Birth, and ELITE (MAB, FAB and TRANS M or F, i.e., all-comers). Interestingly, this may also resolve other niggles – for instance, hospitals, toilets and other services will perhaps become “Female Only”, General single use all-comers, and Male Only. Sorted. (Not. Someone is bound to find fault with this).
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“(Not. Someone is bound to find fault with this).” – Yeah, that’s for sure. I mean, didn’t we hear, trans women are real women?
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Hmm, while two categories – Open and Female – is a distinct improvement in pragmatic terms (because generally females aren’t a threat to men’s ability), I find it philosophically annoying, speaking as a man, and would prefer three categories – Male and Female (on biological sex, obviously) and, what shall we call it, “Others” (or maybe “Gender Confused”).
I’m not sure why I have this reaction, but it just feels unfair to men to have to move over to accommodate women or men who don’t identify as their biological sex. It’s almost like they’ve decided “woman” is, after all, an adult human female, but nobody cares what a man is; in fact, they’re just “other” or “not females”.
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But what about trans men? If they were born female but have been receiving male hormone treatment for years are they entitled to race against biological women who aren’t pumped full of hormones? We seem to have created a nightmare here. Or maybe trans men aren’t interested in sport?
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I’m confused – do you mean transmen in the Open category? That’s the only place they’d be allowed to compete against biological women, but it assumes biological women would want to compete in the Open category rather than the Female category.
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Trans men are born female so would be entitled under these rules to compete against women.
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Oh yeah, I hadn’t thought of that. All the permutations of these changelings are too much for my tiny brain! The hormone treatments for trans individuals maybe ought to be considered under the dosing rules, so that should stop a transman competing in the Female category.
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The linked page says: “All of Swim England’s disciplines – swimming, artistic swimming, diving and water polo – will see a new ‘open’ category introduced, which will be for athletes with a birth sex of male, trans or non-binary competitors.”
And further explanation says: “These categories are designated as:
– Female – athletes with a birth sex of female
– Open – athletes with a birth sex of male, trans or non-binary competitors and any competitor not eligible for the female category”
Which is slightly equivocal, since, as you note, the Female definition would include transmen. However, I imagine the “trans or non-binary” bit in the Open category is probably meant to override that – i.e. to require any trans person to use the Open category, including transmen. It should specify “Female – althletes with a birth sex of female and not trans.”
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Yes, unless they had taken testosterone in which case they would be ineligible. In that case they could compete in the open category
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Isnt it possible just to stop taking the hormones for a period to lower you levels? I think trans men do that to get pregnant. So you would pass the testosterone limits but would still have the advantage of strength and growth that previous years of hormone treatment had given you? That’s not something that can be measured really. I think that by allowing people to alter their natural hormone levels we may have made a level playing field in sport impossible.
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+1 Good question.
I don’t know enough about the biochemistry or “drug” testing in sport, and would like to hear from someone more knoweledgable about this. I think there’s been difficulty differentiating between illegal dosing and medical requirements for a long time, so it’s never been cut and dried. Essentially, we’ve added “transgender” to the list of medical (or pseudo-medical) reasons for people to claim their dosing is valid.
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The aim of certain people seems to be to erase women and womens records, but why? They need 3 categories, biological female & biological male= people always who have excluded enhancing drugs eg testosterone (PAWHED) and a third category, drug enhanced open.
Re changing rooms, toilets etc.
Its never been legal to allow biological males into biological female only spaces and vice versa. It discriminates against both male and females, especially sexual assault survivors, but all need their basic dignity but also for religious reasons. Imagine if allow everyone, a group of men would be allowed to be alone with a ten year old girl who needs privacy to wash out clothing because it was suprisedly “that time of month”. No man understands this, they think women can plan when the lining of the womb comes away! A decent man would be embarrassed to walk in. Why would a biological man insist on entering female only spaces where females undress? I have read of hundreds of attacks on girls and women in toilets, cubicles being kicked in, changing rooms etc, when they are made unisex.
Tiny unisex toilets with no taps, are not the answer, we end up with less toilets when women need more, so is no wonder people arent going out, spending money, first thing i ask is will there be decent female only facilities so i can feel safe and respect my religion. Over a 5th of women are scared to go out.
As there are over 6 million disabled people in uk, anyone who cant use male or female can use the unisex disabled toilets. No need for any change. We need to keep toilets the same as they have always been, supply loads for ladies with communal bit and proper taps because need water for hygiene.
Question to ask is why does a biological male insist on using female only facilities where females undress?
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Exactly, Grace. Thanks for that. There should be three sports categories (or at least men’s and women’s protected as un-doped and medically “enhanced”, since transhumanism will be the next thing). I don’t care how many other categories the deluded men, deluded women, drug-enhanced, etc., want to invent for themselves. Women who think they’re men might want a separate category from men who think they’re women. I don’t care. We have youth categories (which again should protect natural boys and girls from invasion, not that boys or girls ought to be transitioning or doped anyway, but denying cross-identified kids to invade the other space).
I also agree with your analysis of the toilet facilities. I think there are still some difficulties, since trans-identified people are here to stay. We’re at the blog of a transsexual male person who lives as a woman, and to be honest I have no idea how she manages this issue. There will be more and more people who appear less than typical for their sex, which could alarm or be physically dangerous depending on whether we demand they use their sex-based facilities or those they may blend in better. It’s a tangled web. Of course, it would be much less tangled if we invested more in psychotherapy, proper biological education, and less rigid gender roles and expression, instead of the madness of “gender spectrum disorder”.
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