"To participate in triathlons at the elite or amateur level in the female category, a transgender athlete must prove that the concentration of testosterone in her blood has been below 2.5 nmol / l for at least 24 months", indicates in particular World Triathlon, taking up the idea of the UCI, which imposed this criterion on June 16.
That's not all: "At least 48 months must have elapsed since a transgender athlete last competed as a man in any sports competition."
These two criteria were established after a year of consultation bringing together various committees (medical, legal, etc.) and seeking the opinion of experts in the field and members of the transgender community, specifies the International Triathlon Federation.
“The policy we have just approved shows that our priority is to guarantee the principle of equality while demonstrating inclusion,” said World Triathlon President and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Marisol Casado.
This policy "is completely in line with the recommendations of the IOC, and similar to what other international federations have done in recent months", adds the president of the International Triathlon Federation.
However, this new regulation is in fact opposed to the decision taken by the British Triathlon Federation at the beginning of July to integrate transgender athletes into a new “open category”, following the model of the International Swimming Federation.
British Triathlon had thus chosen to allow only athletes who were "female at birth" to participate in women's triathlons, becoming the first federation to close female competitions to transgender women in the United Kingdom.
In November 2021, the IOC had preferred to let each sport decide freely on the conduct to adopt concerning the inclusion or not of transgender women in sports competitions, citing the absence of "scientific consensus on the role of testosterone in performance in the 'all sports'.
The question of the inclusion of transgender women in sports competitions goes far beyond the framework of sport since the victory of American transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the 500 yards earlier this year.
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His university title had then sparked a controversy in the United States, where conservatives and progressives clashed on this subject, before the debate crossed the Atlantic.
© 2022 AFP