(CNN) World Athletics (WA) on Thursday announced new rules affecting transgender female athletes, banning some from participating in women’s track and field events.
The announced regulations, effective March 31, ban athletes who have gone through what WA calls “male puberty” from competing in women’s world ranking competitions. WA said the exclusion would apply to “male-to-female transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty.”
“Decisions are always difficult when there are conflicting needs and rights of different groups, but we remain of the belief that we must uphold fairness for women athletes above all other considerations,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in a statement.
“We will be guided by the science surrounding physical performance and male advantage, which will inevitably evolve in the years to come. We will review our position as more evidence becomes available, but we believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is of paramount importance.”
Coe said the decision was made after consultation with groups including World Athletics affiliates, the Global Athletics Coaches Academy and the Athletes Commission and IOC, as well as representative transgender and human rights groups.
He explained that World Athletics – the global governing body for athletics – will set up a working group to assess the issue of transgender inclusion over the next 12 months.
“We’re not saying no forever,” he said.
In recent years, some opponents of trans women’s and trans girls’ participation in sport have made the issue a political flashpoint. In January, a small group of protesters gathered outside the NCAA convention in San Antonio to protest the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s college sports.
Proponents of banning transgender women from women’s sport have argued that transgender women have a physical advantage over cisgender women in sport.
But mainstream science does not support this conclusion. A 2017 report in the journal Sports Medicine reviewing several related studies found “no direct or consistent research” on trans people having an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers, and critics say the bans the Increase discrimination against trans people.
Debate continues in the scientific community as to whether androgenic hormones such as testosterone serve as useful markers of athletic advantage.
A World Athletics document provided to CNN earlier this year says that after 12 months of gender-affirming hormone therapy, trans women “retain an advantage in muscle mass, volume and strength over cis women,” while acknowledging that there is “limited experimental data available.” ” gives. to this topic.
In Thursday’s statement, World Athletics said: “It emerged that there was little support within the sport for the option first presented to stakeholders that required transgender athletes to keep their testosterone levels below 2.5 for 24 months nmol/L to be eligible to compete internationally in the female category.”