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Diahuebs, 5 October 2023 AWEMainta SPORTS 35
Transgender-Inclusive Swimming Races
Abandoned Due to Lack of Entries
THE World Cup swimming races that were designed to gender women competing in women’s sports, commented
accommodate transgender competitors have been canceled on social media, saying, “If trans women aren’t going to
due to a lack of entries. These open category events, including compete against females and gain a physical advantage,
50 and 100-meter races across all swimming strokes, were they’re not interested!”
scheduled to be a part of the competition in Berlin starting
on Friday. Swimming’s governing body, previously known as FINA, had
voted last year to allow individuals who had completed their
World Aquatics (WA) announced that no entries were transition by the age of 12 to participate in elite women’s
received for these events. However, WA mentioned that the competitions. This decision faced criticism for its impracti-
working group responsible for open category races would cality due to age restrictions in many countries.
explore the possibility of including them in Masters events
in the future. They also stated that they would continue to The governing body implemented its “gender inclusion
engage with the aquatics community on this matter. policy” during the world championships in Budapest in June
of last year. Prior to this policy, transgender competitors
In response to this development, former British Olympic were prohibited from participating in major events like the
swimmer Sharron Davies, who has been critical of trans- Olympics and world championships.
