Finally
A win at last!
I had to look up FINA: it’s a [or the] competitive swimming organization type thing.
The vote was massive.
Good news at last.
Tip Jar
A win at last!
I had to look up FINA: it’s a [or the] competitive swimming organization type thing.
The vote was massive.
Good news at last.
Very welcome news.
I wonder how this ruling and this kind of policy will interact with the push for access to puberty blockers. Will it increase demand by (adults guiding) young boys who might wish to participate in girls’ and women’s sports? Will they just give up? Will puberty blockers be shown not to do a complete job of preventing all puberty for the sake of compliance with this rule, especially in regard to adult swimmers?
I wonder if Lia Thomas will give his medals back.
Hahaha just kidding, of course he won’t.
I bet he will “detransition” though.
@2: I assume it works like a peerage. If you were officially registered as male at the time you got into the line of the peerage (i.e. at birth), then you still get to get the peerage even if in the meantime you have transitioned to, or, ahem, come out as, female. So, similarly, if Lia Thomas is officially registered as female currently (is he?), then he gets to keep his medals even if he bravely and stunningly comes out as male in the future.
I assume.
Here is the start of a good discussion about the pressure to transition early and block puberty, in light of this ruling.
https://twitter.com/JamesEsses/status/1538555826998235137?t=d0zyWp4l79_gzLnkh1ZixQ&s=19
I think you mean FINAlly, amirite?
Sorry.
Yep, good news. This should be the minimum default position (the maximum being it’s not even considered even if they allegedly blocked all male puberty).
Apparently this ruling doesn’t affect Thomas or his medals, since he was swimming in NCAA events. Hopefully the NCAA will come to the same conclusion as FINA, though.
I checked our main online news site (Stuff) this morning. Under the category ‘other sports’ there are at least four articles dealing with trans sport at the moment. That’s a significant percentage of the total showing. it’s such an extraordinary level of capture. When MeToo or BLM captured similar headline share in general or political news sections there was a vigorous and sadly widespread pushback, both online and in the real world. This issue, not so much.
Interestingly, one of the articles is this one…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/129008459/new-gender-diverse-category-small-adjustment-big-impact
It’s about a minor running race that has created a separate ‘gender diverse’ category. Good on them. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.
FINA’s rules will only apply at FINA sanctioned events, including the Olympics and world championships. Individual nations can still make their own rules for local competitions.
Therefore, no William Thomas at the Olympics, but he can still swim as a woman in national events.
Small steps
.
This is huge. Finally a sporting body has shown some spine. Let them be a model for others.