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sports Dialuna 20 Juni 2022

Jabeur wins Berlin Open, comforts injured Bencic

(AP) — Ons Jabeur won
the Berlin Open on Sun-
day. In the moment, it
didn’t matter to her at all.
Jabeur was leading 6-3, 2-1
when Belinda Bencic sig-
naled she couldn’t continue
in the final after hurting her
left ankle in a fall in the first
set. Jabeur gave Bencic words
of comfort at the net, then
hurriedly prepared a cooler
with ice for the Swiss player
to rest her injured ankle.

“I told her, ‘Forget about it,
forget about today.’ The most an to lift a WTA singles title. Sunday. serve while at deuce with Ja- to play on in the second. She
important thing for me is that Since then, she has surged up beur leading 5-3 in the first was in clear discomfort when
she’s OK,” Jabeur said. the rankings to become a fix- Bencic started the match set. It was in a hard-fought serving and retired after Ja-
ture in the top five and won a slowly, possibly due to fa- game with four break points beur broke in the third game.
Jabeur moves to 3-5 in career notable victory at the Madrid tigue from her grueling run for Bencic.
finals, almost a year to the Open last month. Her flag- of four three-set matches this “You deserve this title and I
day since the Tunisian won waving Tunisian fans have week, but was soon firmly in Jabeur served out the first really don’t want to take this
the Birmingham Classic and been a fixture in Berlin all the contest. She slipped and set before Bencic, last year’s moment away from you,”
became the first Arab wom- week and were in full voice hurt her ankle chasing a wide Olympic gold medalist, tried Bencic told Jabeur.

World swimming bans transgender athletes from women’s events

(AP) — World swimming’s spokesperson for FINA pres- for starting gender transition out how it would work,” he championship, the 500-yard
governing body has effec- ident Husain Al-Musallam, hormone treatment to 14 and said. “So there are no details freestyle.
tively banned transgender told The Associated Press. some surgeries to 15 or 17. of how that would work. The
women from competing open category is something Thomas said last month
in women’s events, start- “They’re not saying everyone FINA’s new 24-page policy that will start being discussed on ABC’s “Good Morning
ing Monday. should transition by age 11, also includes proposals for a tomorrow.” America” that she was aim-
that’s ridiculous. You can’t new “open competition” cat- ing to become an Olympic
FINA members widely ad- transition by that age in most egory. The organization said The members voted 71.5% in swimmer. She also disputed
opted a new “gender inclu- countries and hopefully you it was setting up “a new work- favor at the organization’s ex- those who say she has an un-
sion policy” on Sunday that wouldn’t be encouraged to. ing group that will spend the traordinary general congress fair biological edge that ruins
only permits swimmers who Basically, what they’re say- next six months looking at after hearing presentations the integrity of women’s ath-
transitioned before age 12 to ing is that it is not feasible for the most effective ways to set from three specialist groups letics, saying “trans women
compete in women’s events. people who have transitioned up this new category.” — an athlete group, a science are not a threat to women’s
The organization also pro- to compete without having and medicine group and a le- sports.”
posed an “open competition an advantage.” Pearce told the AP that the gal and human rights group
category.” open competition would — that had been working The University of Pennsyl-
Pearce confirmed there are most likely mean more together to form the policy vania didn’t immediately re-
“This is not saying that peo- currently no transgender events, but those details still following recommendations spond to a request for com-
ple are encouraged to tran- women competing in elite need to be worked out. given by the International ment from Thomas.
sition by the age of 12. It’s levels of swimming. Olympic Committee last
what the scientists are saying, “No one quite knows how November. Other sports have also been
that if you transition after the The World Professional As- this is going to work. And examining their rules around
start of puberty, you have an sociation for Transgender we need to include a lot of The IOC urged shifting the transgender athletes.
advantage, which is unfair,” Health just lowered its rec- different people, including focus from individual tes-
James Pearce, who is the ommended minimum age transgender athletes, to work tosterone levels and calling On Thursday, cycling’s gov-
for evidence to prove when erning body updated its eli-
a performance advantage ex- gibility rules for transgender
isted. athletes with stricter limits
that will force riders to wait
FINA said it recognizes “that longer before they can com-
some individuals and groups pete.
may be uncomfortable with
the use of medical and sci- The International Cycling
entific terminology related Union (UCI) increased the
to sex and sex-linked traits transition period on low tes-
(but) some use of sensitive tosterone to two years, and
terminology is needed to be lowered the maximum ac-
precise about the sex charac- cepted level of testosterone.
teristics that justify separate The previous transition pe-
competition categories.” riod was 12 months but the
UCI said recent scientific
studies show that “the await-
FINA policy on men's and ed adaptations in muscle
women's competition mass and muscle strength/
In March, Lia Thomas made power” among athletes who
history in the United States as have made a transition from
the first transgender woman male to female takes at least
to win an NCAA swimming two years.