Tue 26 Jan 2016 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The International Olympics Committee have relaxed the guidelines on transgender athletes who may no longer have to have undergone sex reassignment surgery to compete. The change in IOC guidelines are designed to be recommendations and will not be enforced as “rules or regulations”. International sports federations and other institutions are recommended to follow these starting this year ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Outlining the guidelines on their website, IOC writes, “It is necessary to ensure insofar as possible that trans athletes are not excluded from the opportunity to participate in sporting competition, the overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition. "To require surgical anatomical changes as a precondition to participation is not necessary to preserve fair competition and may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights." Medical Director of the IOC, Dr. Richard Budgett, says he doesn’t believe many federations have rules on defining eligibility of trans individuals but this should I've them the confidence to put rules in place. Previous guidelines required athletes to have undergone reassignment surgery and at least two years of hormone therapy. The new guidelines require trans women to prove that their testosterone levels in their blood have been below 10 nanomols per litre for at least a year prior to their first competition. Trans men have no restrictions placed upon them.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 26th January 2016 - 11:35am