According to a report by Outsports, the International Olympic Committee has issued recommendations for new guidelines affecting transgender athletes.
According to the report, surgery will no longer be a requirement for transgender female athletes to participate in the Olympics. The new guidelines also leave no restrictions on transgender male athletes.
In our own investigation, we found the consensus meeting took place back in November 2015. In the meeting, the following guidelines were recommended.
In this spirit, the IOC Consensus Meeting agreed the following guidelines to be taken into account by sports organizations when determining eligibility to compete in male and female competition:
1. Those who transition from female to male are eligible to compete in the male category without restriction.
2. Those who transition from male to female are eligible to compete in the female category under the following conditions:
2.1. The athlete has declared that her gender identity is female. The declaration cannot be changed, for sporting purposes, for a minimum of four years.
2.2. The athlete must demonstrate that her total testosterone level in serum has been below 10 nmol/L for at least 12 months prior to her first competition (with the requirement for any longer period to be based on a confidential case-by-case evaluation, considering whether or not 12 months is a sufficient length of time to minimize any advantage in women’s competition).
2.3. The athlete’s total testosterone level in serum must remain below 10 nmol/L throughout the period of desired eligibility to compete in the female category.
2.4. Compliance with these conditions may be monitored by testing. In the event of non-compliance, the athlete’s eligibility for female competition will be suspended for 12 months.
This would be a major victory for the transgender community. Sources expect the new rules to be approved. You can read the full list of recommendations at Olympic.org
