Last week, biological male Lia Thomas lost his challenge against the Court of Arbitration of Sport in Switzerland—the world’s top court in matters of sporting fairness—to overturn the twenty twenty-two rule set by World Aquatics, which sets rules that inform elite competitions, including the Olympics, a rule that allows transgender-identified males to compete in women’s swim events only if they transitioned before the age of twelve or before one of the early stages of puberty. Thomas transitioned well after puberty and thus is disqualified.
While we would like these athletic organizations to completely disallow biological males from participating in women’s sports, this ruling is at least in line with the World Aquatics own rule and helps protect women’s sports at elite levels, like the Olympics, from being unfairly and wrongly co-opted by men.
