Women’s soccer may be about to get a testosterone boost.
As reported by the Daily Mail, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) — soccer’s international governing body — might end its testosterone-level requirements for males who identify as women.
The ruling body’s draft framework has removed its testosterone threshold for transgender women and proposed that footballers should be allowed to compete as their self-identified gender.
“The new regulations,” the outlet makes clear, “are still at the consultation stage and it is understood that some members of FIFA’s senior management are unconvinced that they should be published in their current form.”
Obviously, if the testosterone requirements are dropped, women’s soccer will be more ready than ever for males to dominate.
The Daily Mail calls the prospect a “radical development.”
It’s a noted contrast to cycling:
Cycling’s ruling body, the UCI, last week tightened their eligibility criteria for the female category, having been sparked into a review by the case of the British trans-cyclist Emily Bridges.
UCI has lowered testosterone limits from five to 2.5 nanomoles/litre. It also doubles the amount of time trans-athletes must suppress their testosterone to stay within that range.
FIFA has however recommended no threshold after an internal review which began in 2020. They have now dropped the old limit at five nmole/L for 12 months, and this was following an internal assessment that started in 2020.
FIFA could instead consider puberty.
[FIFA has]A proposal was made that transgender women should not compete in the female category, if they have a competitive advantage due to male puberty. It is not clear how this would be decided, but an independent panel of experts in medicine, psychology and law would evaluate each case.
Joe Rogan was a MMA commentator who spoke about the differences between male and female sexual development in relation to sports. He also noted male strengths, aside from levels of adult hormones:
“[I]f you’re a woman, and you’re a natural woman, and you don’t take any extra hormones or male hormones, you’re not taking steroids or any sort of performance-enhancing drugs, you’re doing your very best to compete and you’re at the top of the heap, and someone comes along and they were a man for 30 years, and decides they’re going to be a woman…and competes as a woman and destroys records and dominates you in that sport, that’s [nonsense]. … That’s a person who is biologically a male, and who was a male for 30+ years of having testosterone run through their body and affect their tendon strength, and affect the shape of their bones and the mechanical advantages of the male hips vs. the female hips, and then they’re competing with smaller people who have been a woman their whole life. It’s not fair. It is as much cheating as taking steroids when the other person doesn’t or taking performance-enhancing drugs when the other person doesn’t. … Maybe even more so, because you also have — there’s a bunch of advantages in terms of reaction time that males enjoy. It’s some significant difference in reaction time between males and even untrained males vs. female professional athletes.”
Speaking on the soccer situation, World Rowing’s Sports Medicine Commission Chair Jurgen Steinacker seemed to indicate he’s of a mind similar to Joe’s:
“If you are allowed to self-identify, and your suitability is then determined by a set of medical factors, you could end up dissolving the female category.”
Meanwhile, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) has just dissolved Lia Thomas’s chance to participate in world swimming events:
World swimming’s governing body effectively banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s events.
“If you transition after the start of puberty, you have an advantage, which is unfair,” the spokesperson for FINA says. https://t.co/PC7Vwgm4Cs
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 19, 2022
Nonetheless, Lia has insisted, “I am a woman.”
I AM a woman. Trans UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas defends competing against biological women in Sports Illustrated interview https://t.co/wNXsU0iiyd
— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) March 4, 2022
FINA may create an “open” league for swimmers such as Lia.
Transgender athletes have opened up a world of possibilities in all sports: swimming, cycling and weightlifting. And surely, it won’t be soon shut. Keep watching for further developments.
-ALEX
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