The Economist - UK (2022-03-19)

34 United States The Economist March 19th 2022

Women’ssport

Swimming in controversy

C

ollegeswimmingisfarfromthemost

talked­about sport in America. But this

year’s National Collegiate Athletic Associa­

tion (ncaa) Women’s Swimming and Div­

ing  Championships,  which  take  place  be­

tween March 16th and 19th in Atlanta, have

attracted unusual attention. Most of it has

been focused on a single athlete: Lia Thom­

as, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms Thomas has already broken records

in previous competitions. In December she

won  a  1,650­yard  freestyle  race  by  38  sec­

onds.  On  that  kind  of  form,  in  Atlanta  Ms

Thomas was expected to win comfortably. 

But  not  without  controversy.  For  al­

though  Ms  Thomas  identifies  herself  as  a

woman,  biologically  she  is  a  male.  Her

dominant  performances  have  thrust  her

into  the  centre  of  the  debate  around

whether transgender women—males who,

like  Ms  Thomas,  identify  as  women—

should be allowed to compete in women’s

sport. It is an argument that is increasingly

splitting sport, in America and beyond. 

The argument is playing out inside sta­

diums, newspapers and state legislatures.

At past events, some in the crowd have re­

fused  to  applaud  Ms  Thomas’s  victories,

waiting  for  the  second­place  swimmer  to

finish before cheering. In February a letter

by 16 of Ms Thomas’s team­mates was sup­

portive  of  her  new  identity,  but  said  that

“biologically  Lia  holds  an  unfair  advanta­

ge...in the women’s category.” (Citing fears

about future employment, none was will­

ingtosigntheirname.)A  broader  letter,

published  on  March  15th  and  signed  by

more than 5,000 people—including many

Olympic athletes—took a similar view. 

On March 3rd Iowa became the 11th state

to pass a law forbidding trans women from

competing  in  women’s  sports  (others  in­

clude Texas and Florida). Such rules have,

in  turn,  prompted  lawsuits  attempting  to

get  them  overturned.  Big  national  non­

profit organisations, including glaadand

the  American  Civil  Liberties  Union,  sup­

port  Ms  Thomas  competing  in  the  wom­

en’s  category.  (A  third  letter,  this  time

signed by 300 athletes, likewise supported

Ms Thomas.) The argument ranges far be­

yond  swimming,  too,  covering  cycling,

high­school athletics and even weightlift­

ing. In 2021 usaPowerlifting, a weightlift­

ing  organisation,  was  sued  over  its  policy

that athletes should compete on the basis

of their sex, not gender identity.

Testosterone-driven

Ms Thomas is breaking no rules. For many

years  the  ncaa’s  policy  was  that  trans­

women athletes could compete so long as

they took medication designed to suppress

their  testosterone  levels.  Testosterone  is

the  main  male  sex  hormone  and  a  potent

anabolic  steroid.  Levels  surge  during  pu­

berty, which is the main reason why adult

males outperform females in almost every

sport. In swimming the women’s world re­

cord  for  the  400­metre  freestyle,  for  in­

stance, stands at three minutes and 56 sec­

onds.  The  men’s  record  is  3:40.  In  some

sports  the  gap  is  much  larger.  The  Ameri­

can men’s combined powerlifting record is

1,296kg. The women’s record is 793kg.

The  hope  was  that  suppressing  testos­

terone  levels  would  reduce  those  advan­

tages, letting female athletes compete with

trans women on a reasonably level playing

field.  The  science  suggests  that  the  com­

promise  does  not  work.  A  pair  of  review

studies,  published  in  2020  and  2021,  con­

cluded that testosterone suppression does

not  go  far  in  removing  the  advantage  be­

stowed by male puberty.

America’s  swimming  authorities  are

split.  Having  originally  said  it  would  fol­

low the lead of usaSwimming, which gov­

erns elite swimming in America, the ncaa

changed  its  mind  in  February  when  usa

Swimming  passed  new,  more  restrictive

rules  that  require  trans  women  to  prove

that “prior physical development” had not

given them a competitive advantage. 

The issue is just as contentious outside

America.  In  September  a  group  of  British

sporting  bodies  concluded  that  balancing

fair competition and the inclusion of trans

women in women’s sport is impossible; in­

dividual  sports  would  have  to  decide

which was more important. Some of them,

such  as  British  Triathlon,  welcomed  the

guidance. Others, such as the British Kick­

boxing Council, seemed less keen. (As with

Ms Thomas’s teammates, the report found

that few elite female athletes were willing

to speak publicly about the topic, lest they

lose sponsorship deals or team places.) 

In 2020 World Rugby decided that trans

women  would  not  be  allowed  into  the

women’s game on grounds of both fairness

and safety. But its remit extends only to in­

ternational  matches,  and  most  domestic

unions  have  the  opposite  policy.  In  Den­

mark, sports authorities have recommend­

ed that trans women be barred from wom­

en’s sport at the elite level. The result, says

Ross Tucker, a South African sports scien­

tist who was involved with the World Rug­

by decision, is a patchwork. Male athletes

can compete against female ones in some

sports, in some countries, and at some lev­

els—but not others. 

In the short term, that seems unlikely to

change.  Many  sports  take  their  lead  from

the International Olympic Committee. Be­

fore  the  Tokyo  games  last  year,  it  had  re­

quired  trans­women  athletes  to  suppress

their  testosterone  levels.  However,  in  the

light of the scientific evidence, it promised

new  rules.  Its  new  policy,  announced  in

November, was greeted with bafflement. It

threw  the  hot  potato  back  to  individual

sports, but warned them, despite what the

record­books  say,  that  there  should  be  no

automatic assumption that males possess

any advantageatall.Clarity seems further

away than ever.n

The issue of transgender women is splitting the sporting world