The participation of transgender athletes at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris will depend on the decisions of international sports federations, said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the French Minister of Sports, on Wednesday on the Franceinfo channel.
"It is a difficult and evolving subject in which we must navigate between two requirements, inclusion and respect for sporting fairness," said Oudéa-Castéra.
She made the comment when asked about the recent decision of World Athletics (WA), the international federation of athletics, to ban "transgender women who went through male puberty" from female categories in elite competitions, out of fear that they would have an unfair advantage.
Oudéa-Castéra said that not all decision-makers are of the same opinion as the WA, and that "scientific progress will enlighten" their judgement, RTBF reports.
No enhanced performance
The WA's decision to ban trans women from competing was questioned by researchers who pointed out that existing studies do not show an enhanced performance of transgender women compared to their cisgender peers.
Additionally, this rule may make it harder for researchers to produce more extensive data to inform policies, Eric Vilain, a geneticist at the University of California, told Science Insider.
In 2021, in Tokyo, Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, was the first openly trans woman to compete at the Olympic level. In order to participate, she had to comply with the regulations of the time, which required her to demonstrate a testosterone level lower than 10 nmol per litre, for at least 12 months.
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At the end of 2021, however, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to scrap the blanket criteria and let the sports federations decide on the participation of trans athletes.
The international federations for rugby and swimming have also banned transgender women from taking place in their competitions.
