Neither men nor women, the first race in Spain with the controversial non-binary category

• Report The difficult fit of trans athletes: "They have boarded up doors and windows"

In the last New York marathon, Daniele Meucci, former European distance champion, finished eighth and took $5,000.

32 minutes later,

, an amateur track biologist, came to the finish in 172nd place and received the same award.

How was it possible?

Meucci participated in the male category and Caswell did not: he did so in the new non-binary category.

Caswell, in fact, got on the podium as its winner and was accompanied by

and

, two athletes who, despite finishing outside the top 1,000 overall, despite finishing in more than three hours, pocketed 4,000 and $3,000.

While the international federations block the arrival of trans athletes to elite competition, racing organizations are looking for a solution for the popular ones who do not identify with the traditional categories and, for the moment, this is the preferred one: a different category.

In a way, a mixed bag.

If a runner is not considered a man or a female runner is not considered a woman, that is his place.

More than a year ago, the New York Road Runners created the non-binary category for their 5K races and given the success of the response -especially on social networks-, many other American events, including the New York marathons, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia or Miami, were behind.

Now the trend comes to Spain.

For the first time in the country, tomorrow at the 10K Valencia Ibercaja there will be a non-binary classification.

“Innovation is in our DNA and gender diversity is part of today's society.

There are those who do not identify with the male or female sex and should no longer register as a man or a woman, ”explains in conversation with EL MUNDO

, organizer of the test, who admits that his team had a debate.

No prize for whoever wins

Because once the masculine/feminine binomial is broken, the questions are many.

And create a classification for trans men and women?

And another for bigender or intergender people?

"We had doubts until when to open the options, but we believe that this third option could give an answer to many people," replies the organizer.

Yesterday the race had about 12,000 registered and only 39 of them had signed up as non-binary, a figure that suggests that the sporting level will not be very high.

As will happen in the October half marathon and the December Valencia marathon, which will also have a third category, in the 10K Valencia Ibercaja there will be no cash prizes for this new classification and, in this case, there were no doubts in the organization.

“Hopefully no one gets angry, but it is a decision of the organization.

It is the race that decides who to reward and that classification will be one more, like the age groups, "says Aparicio, who assumes that many events will follow in his footsteps in the near future.

The non-binary category is already a fact.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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• Articles Javier Sanchez