FINA, the international swimming federation, has barred transgender women from competing if they have gone through male puberty.
The new policy, announced Sunday by the federation, requires that transgender athletes wanting to compete in women’s competitions have either never gone through male puberty, or that they had it suppressed at the stage when physical changes begin to appear, or before the age of 12, whichever occurred later.
Such athletes will also have to prove to the federation that they have continuously suppressed their testosterone levels since that time.
“We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,” Husain al-Musallam, the president of the federation said in statement.