Right: Harry Potter author J K Rowling began by "liking" a Twitter comment, later openly questioning the fairness of transgender athletes competing against cisgender women. Rowling is among many commentators attracting hostility from social and other media.
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Background information
The information on 'Transgender people in sports' is abbreviated from a Wikipedia entry with the same title which can be accessed in full at
Gender Terms Glossary
Cisgendered: A term used to describe a person whose social gender identity aligns with their physiological sexual characteristics and the sexual identity assigned them at birth . By extension, cismen and ciswomen have a social gender identity in accord with their physiological sexual attributes at birth and the social sexual identity then assigned to them.
Gender dysphoria: Clinically significant distress caused when a person's assigned birth gender is not the same as the one with which they identify.
Gender identity: One's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither - how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One's gender identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.
GAHT: This acronym stands for gender affirming hormone therapy. It is hormone therapy given to bring an individual's physiological gender attributes into line with the gender identity with which they identify. In individuals transitioning to a female physiology, it can involve the administration of anti-androgens to reduce testosterone levels along with the administration of oestradiol. Oestradiol is a steroid hormone made from cholesterol and is the strongest of the three naturally produced oestrogens. Oestrogens help to produce female sexual characteristics.
LGBTQA+: An acronym used to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, Ally + Other Identities.
Intersex: Intersex people are born with a variety of differences in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy. They often have a mix of sex-related physical characteristics drawn from normatively gendered men and women. There is a wide variety of difference among intersex variations, including differences in genitalia, chromosomes, gonads, internal sex organs, hormone production, hormone response, and/or secondary sex traits. Their socially assigned gender identity may not coincide with their inner determination of gender identity.
Transgender: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.
Transitioning: A series of processes that some transgender people may undergo in order to live more fully as their gender concept demands. This typically includes social transition, such as changing name and pronouns, medical transition, which may include hormone therapy or gender affirming surgeries, and legal transition, which may include changing legal name and sex on government identity documents. Transgender people may choose to undergo some, all, or none of these processes.
Transgender people in sport
The participation of transgender people in competitive sports is a controversial issue, particularly where athletes who have gone through male puberty are notably successful in women's sport, where they are claimed to have an unfair advantage. It is also suggested that they represent a significant increased injury risk to female-by-birth competitors.
Resistance to trans women competing in women's sports generally focuses on physiological attributes such as height and weight, or performance metrics such as speed and strength-and whether sustained testosterone suppression can adequately reduce any natural advantages of male body characteristics within a given women's sport.
Access regulations requiring that trans athletes compete against athletes of the same assigned sex at birth and requiring sex verification testing have been used. Proponents of such regulations regard them as necessary to ensure fair competition, while opponents regard them as discriminatory.
Olympic Games
In 2003, a committee convened by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical Commission drew up new guidelines for participation of athletes who had undergone gender reassignment. The report listed three conditions for participation. First, athletes must have undergone sex reassignment surgery, including changes in the external genitalia and gonadectomy. Second, athletes must show legal recognition of their gender. Third, athletes must have undergone hormone therapy for an appropriate time before participation, with two years being the suggested time. It was not until 2004 that the IOC allowed transgender athletes to participate in the Olympic Games.
In 2015, the IOC modified these guidelines in recognition that legal recognition of gender could be difficult in countries where gender transition is not legal, and that requiring surgery in otherwise healthy individuals "may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights". The new guidelines require only that trans woman athletes declare their gender and not change that assertion for four years, as well as demonstrate a testosterone level of less than 10 nanomoles per liter for at least one year prior to competition and throughout the period of eligibility. Athletes who transitioned from female to male were allowed to compete without restriction. These guidelines were in effect for the 2016 Rio Olympics, although no openly transgender athletes competed.
In 2021, the IOC approved Laurel Hubbard, a trans woman, to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics in weightlifting. Hubbard became the first out trans woman to compete at the Olympics; she did not complete her lifts and won no medals. On 21 July 2021, at the same Games, Canadian non-binary soccer player Quinn became the first transgender person to compete at the Olympics, playing for the Canadian women's soccer team. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, they became the first out, transgender Olympian to win a gold medal. Alana Smith, a non-binary skateboarder, represented the United States in the women's skateboarding semifinals of the 2020 Summer Olympics.
World Athletics
In October 2019, World Athletics changed the testosterone limit for transgender competitors, setting it at 5 nmol/L, from the previous 10 nmol/L, in order to bring it in line with the DSD (intersex) regulations. According to regulations from October 2019, in order for a trans woman to compete in the women's category: "3.2.1 she must provide a written and signed declaration, in a form satisfactory to the Medical Manager, that her gender identity is female; 3.2.2 she must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Expert Panel (on the balance of probabilities), in accordance with clause 4, that the concentration of testosterone in her serum has been less than 5 nmol/L continuously for a period of at least 12 months; and 3.2.3 she must keep her serum testosterone concentration below 5 nmol/L for so long as she wishes to maintain her eligibility to compete in the female category of competition."
World Athletics also has rules for intersex/differences of sex development (DSD) athletes. DSD athletes will be subjected to specific rules if they have XY male chromosomes, testes rather than ovaries, have circulating testosterone within the typical male range (7.7 to 29.4 nmol/L), and are androgen-sensitive so that their body makes use of that testosterone. World Athletics requires that any such athlete must reduce their blood testosterone level to 5 nmol/L or lower for a six-month period before becoming eligible for track running events from 400 metres to the mile run in international competition, though World Athletics publicly remains open to extending this to other events based on new scientific study. World Athletics created these rules as a way to ensure fair competition in the women's category.
Other sporting competitions
In 1996 the Iron Ladies, a men's volleyball team made up of gay men and transgender women from Thailand, won the national championship. The Iron Ladies were not allowed to join Thailand's national volleyball team because of the way they dressed.
The first out transgender person to make a US National Team was Chris Mosier, who in 2016 qualified for Team USA in duathlon. Mosier is considered the catalyst for the change in the IOC policy on transgender athletes in 2015, when he challenged the policy after initially being banned from the world championship race. Mosier also became the first known transgender athlete to compete in the Olympic Trials in the gender with which they identify, and the first trans man to make a men's Olympic Trials, when he competed in January 2020 in the US Olympic Team Trials in the 50k Racewalking event.
In 2017 Mack Beggs, a teenager from Texas, was required to wrestle against girls throughout the season of his transition from female to male up through the state championship, despite wanting to wrestle against boys. This was due to state sport regulations requiring athletes to compete alongside athletes of their assigned sex. Some opponents say the testosterone prescribed as part of his transition gives him an unfair advantage and made it unsafe for the other wrestlers. (He finished the regular season at 52-0 and won the state championship.)
In October 2018, Rachel McKinnon won a gold medal at the cycling Masters World Track Championship in Los Angeles.