The World of Competitive Sports Weighs In

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"The IOC has received a lot of support. It is very encouraged by the fact that the vast majority of the international community understands the challenging situation for sport and supports its values-based course of action. This has been expressed by many statements from political leaders at the level of the United Nations, intergovernmental organizations and heads of state and government."

"Just recently, in May 2023, the Group of Seven [G7] Leaders expressed support in a statement at their summit in Hiroshima/Japan. Early in July, the Non-Aligned Movement, chaired by Azerbaijan, which includes 120 of the 193 UN Member States, also declared its support."

"The G7 statement says that the G7 are “fully respecting the autonomy of sporting organizations” and want to ensure that “Russian and Belarusian athletes are in no way appearing as representatives of their states”. This is fully aligned with the position of the IOC in this respect."

International Olympic Committee

Sport officials remain split on whether to permit Russian athletes to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Governing bodies have taken to permitting Russian athletes to participate in Olympic qualifying competitions, but as neutral competitors only, dispensing with national flags or anthems, after most sports following Russia's invasion of Ukraine barred Russian competitors. The IOC has not itself decided whether Russian and Belarus athletes can compete at the Paris Games.

For the in-house sport of boxing, the IOC remains uncertain enough to delay action. Most sports allowing Russians to return have followed IOC advice to refer to them as "individual neutral athletes", continuing to bar those under contract with the military or who have publicly supported the war. Another recommendation of the IOC is to block Russia from team sports such as soccer or basketball.

The IOC has recommended that all athletes that serve in the Russian or Belarusian armed forces, such as Sofya Velikaya, should be banned from international competition   Getty Images

Understandably, Ukraine remains fiercely opposed to any Russians being allowed to compete. Ukrainian athletes and national teams are boycotting competitions where Russians are permitted to return. A government decree was issued last April in Ukraine. In search of pro-war posts by Russian athletes, activists from Ukraine have been trawling social media for evidence of support of the Russian invasion to help disqualify such athletes from competing.

The World Athletics Council excluded athletes from Russia and Belarus from competition following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, stating their decision will remain in place "for the foreseeable future", reflecting a March vote of the World Athletics Council. World Aquatics on the other hand has stated it finds favour in allowing Russia and Belarus to return to swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming and has set up a task force expected to produce a report in late July. 

 

Men's and women's tennis tours sought not to exclude Russian or Belarusian players after the invasion, fining tournaments that did decide to impose restrictions.While Ukrainian players continued competing in tournaments, most refuse to shake hands with Russians or Belarusians. However, Russians and Belarusian players cannot enter national team competitions while the International Tennis Federation has not committed to a final decision on the Olympics, awaiting the qualifying June 2024 world rankings.

From early 2024, gymnasts from Russia and Belarus will be permitted to participate as "individual neutral athletes", even though Russian gymnasts have been among the most vocal supporters of the war. The IOC runs Olympic boxing in Paris and in-house qualifiers following a feud of long standing with the International Boxing Association and its Russian president. Host nation Poland of the June European Games refused to allow Russian athletes.

Ukraine boycotted the world championships in judo and taekwondo after Russians were allowed to compete. The "neutral" delegation of Russian athletes in judo included some athletes previously identified by the Defence Ministry as holding military ranks. The International Judo Federation said all Russian competitors were employed at a state sports training facility and had opposed excluding any Russian competitors.

Since the IOC remains firm on excluding Russia from team sports with no Olympic sport defying that regulation yet, it remains unlikely that Russian teams will be competing in soccer, volleyball, basketball or handball at the Paris Olympics. A ban on "team events in individual sports" such as relay races or the team all-around in gymnastics also comes under a recommended ban by the IOC.

After the Russian weightlifting team refused to sign a waiver accepting the conditions for "neutral" status that included a promise to "continue to abstain from expressing any support to the war", Russia boycotted weightlifting events, while Belarusian athletes signed and are competing. 

 

Some sports like archery have delayed their decision-making, while canoeing is planning to allow Russians back in some Olympic qualifiers. Rowing will permit only single sculls and pairs, while no larger Russian crews will be allowed to take part.

 

The IOC has recommended that International Federations and event organisers suspend athletes that publicly support Russia's war against Ukraine  YouTube

"In an event of any athlete failing to respect the strict conditions of participation, the International Federation and sports event organizers concerned should immediately remove them from the competition and suspend them from any further competitions."

"You will see here that with this criteria we are trying to address the point of any athletes making statements related to the war."

IOC director for the athletes department Kaveh Mehrabi

Peak Woke Insanity

"I'm quite disappointed, quite disappointed for the female athlete who will lose out on that spot."

"We're all about equality for women in sport but right now that equality is being taken away from us."

"I've had female weightlifters come up to me and say, 'what do we do? this isn't fair, what do we do?'. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do because every time we voice it we get told to be quiet."

Former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs 

Former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs claims female athletes are being told to "be quiet" when they complain about the fairness of Laurel Hubbard competing in women's competitions.

"[While committed to inclusion the IOC is currently reviewing its guidelines to take into account the] perceived tension between fairness/safety and inclusion/non-discrimination."

"The IOC is developing new guidance to help ensure that athletes -- regardless of their gender identity and/or sex characteristics -- can engage in safe and fair competition."

International Olympics Committee

 

"This is a question of fairness, that's why I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls sports in school."

"It just isn't fair, and we have to protect girls sports in our schools [from the physical advantages those born male have over females]."

Caitlyn Jenner - who transitioned to a woman following a successful career as a male Olympic athlete

Females, complains former Olympic weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs of New Zealand, are being told to "be quiet" in response to their complaints over the lack of fairness relating to the very real likelihood of transgender New Zealand athlete Laurel Hubbard proceeding to compete at the summer Tokyo Games. As far as the New Zealand Olympic Committee is concerned, the fact that a born male who transitioned to female will be competing against women athletes despite the obvious physical advantages masculinity brings, transition aside, is fine with them.

They see an opportunity to score a medal or two with this candidate in a climate that the woke world forces everyone else to wedge themselves in to and that's that. Having a male-born-but-transitioned-to-female with all the physical characteristics intact of malehood compete against women with their quite obviously slighter frames and musculature, it just the way the cookie crumbles. It is the advantage of the trans competitor, the country he/she represents and while it diminishes the sport itself and disadvantages women athletes in particular, well, that's life.

World Rugby banned transgender athletes from participating in elite women's game a year ago for obvious safety reasons. The NZOC sees no reason to do so and awaits nomination and selection for its weightlifting team in June, but are complacent that Hubbard meets the current International Weightlifting Federation criteria. So things are moving ahead just splendidly. An individual who competed in men's weightlifting competitions until transitioning in 2013, will now give women a run for their weightlifting prowess.

Hubbard: Women's +90kg Weightlifting  Gold Coast 2018

Who needs performance enhancing drugs when individuals dissatisfied with their role in society can decide to transition and advantage themselves that way? Society and sport federations won't accept the use of drugs to enhance performance, but society now mandates that individuals who decide they're not comfortable in their 'assigned-at-birth' identities -- to use the sensitive new language of the trans community and their supporters -- must have their human rights' position respected in the great narrative of the LGBTQ-2 community.

Women who compete and have their own dreams of proving themselves equal to other women with the proven capacity of mastering a sport must now calculate how prepared they are, as women born, to compete against a man who prefers being a woman. Laurel Hubbard has yet to persuade the New Zealand Olympic Committee of personal fitness and performance standards prior to selection for the team, but that is a mere formality entirely for the optics of fair competition.

In 2015, the International Olympic Committee in its great wisdom and concern with fairness permitted any transgender athlete to compete as a woman with the proviso that their testosterone levels be under 10 nanomoles per litre for the year previous to their first competition. According to scientists, the guidelines do little to mitigate biological advantages of individuals who have undergone puberty as males, affecting bone and muscle density. Inconvenient details.

Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand competes in the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the men's division. Photo by Paul Childs/Reuters/File

Fair Play and May the Best WoMAN Win!

"[Players] should be able to participate as the gender with which they identify and not be subject to requirements for disclosure of personal information beyond those required of cisgender athletes. Nor should there be any requirement for hormonal therapy or surgery."

Rugby Canada Guidelines for player inclusion: "I identify as female"

 

"She's [trans rugby player Kelly Morgan, 6' tall] going to be a good, good player for the next few years, as long as we can stop her injuring players in training."

founder, U.K. rugby team

 

"I do feel guilty, but what can you do? I don't go out to hurt anybody. I just want to play rugby." 

"I'm always optimistic and I think being open breaks the ice with people. I'm like, 'this is me, this is what I'm going through'." 

"Times are changing. Hopefully I'll inspire more people to come and play rugby, or any sort of sport."

Kelly Morgan/Nicholas Gareth Morgan, transgender rugby player

'If you can't take the mick out of yourself, then what's the point?'

 The World Rugby association investigated the harms women are vulnerable to in contact sports under inclusion rules, bringing together professional experts in the study of biology, sociology and kinesiology for the purpose of updating eligibility standards for player inclusion. The consultation committee based its study and conclusions on data the Karolinska Institute of medical academic research, in Sweden had published.

 

And that data led them to conclude that even following IOC hormone reduction guidelines, genetically male athletes are on average 40 percent heavier, 15 percent faster, 30 percent more physically powerful and 25 to 50 percent stronger than are female athletes; enormous spreads that make a world of difference in the time, and distance measurements distinguishing gold from silver.  

Injury to female athletes tends to increase by 30 percent when paired against genetically male competitors. The World Rugby Council issued a resolution on October 9 with respect to transgender participation: "Transgender women may not play women's rugby", representing a first for a sport federation to go its separate way from the IOC on the issue.

Ice Hockey, rugby and ringette are recognized as the riskiest of sports among youth between the ages of five to 19, for brain injuries. Brain injuries account for 27 to 44 percent of all physical harms sustained during games. Yet it is the 'hurt feelings' that may result when "gender identity and gender expression" fail to be given the respect due them that appears to rate.

The safety issue, however, is paramount, or should be, in playing hard-contact sport. Female athletes who compete against genetically male athletes don't necessarily feel safe even in non-contact sports. Three female Connecticut high school runners launched a federal Title 1X lawsuit in reflection of the fact that over three competitive seasons from 2017 to 2019, two genetically male athletes won gold and silver in 15 women's state championship titles.

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights agreed that Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire's transgender sports and inclusion policy violated Title 1X prohibiting discrimination in educational programs and activities on the basis of sex. This was a resolution of a civil rights claim brought by Concerned Women for America. The upshot was that FPU agreed to "rescind its Transgender Participation and Inclusion Policy and will cease any and all practices related thereto".

The complaint originated when transathlete CeCe Telfer competed in the 400m hurdles on the men's team in 2015 and 2017, ranking 390th in NCAA Division 2, then in 2018 he self-identified as a woman and became eligible to compete against women according to NCAA rules. He won the women's national championship in June 2020. His win was ascribed by his coach to attitude: "I've never met anyone as strong as her mentally in my life".

 

CeCe Telfer

Screengrab via Twitter/ NCAA Division II

"But there are all these disadvantages of competing in the 100 hurdles, you know?"

"First of all, my height, how tall I am, is a disadvantage, because the wind is hitting us so hard and the taller you are, the harder you fall, basically. There’s wind resistance."  

"[Another disadvantage:] The fact that the hurdles are so close. [smaller in women’s competition; six inches shorter than in men’s races, but more than half a meter closer together]."

“And there are people who say I have the benefit of testosterone. But no: I have no benefit. I’m on hormone suppression, it doesn’t help. It’s another disadvantage. Cis women are producing more testosterone than the average trans female."

"So it’s crazy! I’m the crazy one, to be the weakest female, the weakest link in the chain, to be competing against the top ones. I should be fingered as the stupid one, for wanting to do that in the first place."

CeCe Telfer, transgender athlete

The IOC has allowed biological males since 2015, self-identifying as female for a year to compete in women's sport as long as they reduce their testosterone levels to 10 nmol/1, higher as it happens, than the female testosterone range of .54 to 2.4 nmol/1. So much for testosterone comparability. 

CeCe Telfer, center, as seen moments prior to the start of the 60M hurdles.

Screengrab/NCAA