The scheduled 'open' races for transgender athletes at the Swimming World Cup will not happen this week because there were no entries..Six weeks ago, World Aquatics, the worldwide governing body for aquatic sports, invited transgender swimmers to compete in a category different from their biological sex to request information on how they could qualify for the experimental 'open' 50m and 100m races at the World Cup in Berlin, taking place from Friday to Sunday this weekend..“Since then, there’s been a wall of silence,” a senior governance source told The Times of London..“No formal enquiries from any elite-standard swimmers and not a single entry have been received. We understood that some swimmers did contact national federations to ask whether they would be eligible, but none were, on various grounds, including ‘not good enough’ to meet the qualification standards that apply to all athletes or an insufficient record of transition therapy and process.”.In June 2022, World Aquatics set up new rules. Any athlete who underwent Tanner stage two male puberty changes around age 11 or 12 cannot compete in the women's category..Simultaneously, World Aquatics also announced the formation of an Inclusion Working Group, tasked with creating criteria for an open category meant to acknowledge and recognize gender identity..The Berlin pilot was supposed to finalize that working group, but a World Aquatics statement on Tuesday confirmed that “no entries have been received for the Open Category events.”.The World Aquatics working group concluded “there is no current demand at the elite level” for a group based on gender identity..The working group might consider testing the pilot program at a masters event, which includes swimmers aged 25 and over, many of whom have retired from competitive swimming but continue to train regularly..Sharron Davies was happy about the news. She is a former Olympian who fights for equal treatment for women in sports competitions..“There were several transgender swimmers, like Lia Thomas, racing and winning prizes in American college competition in recent years, but when they’re given a chance to have their own category, they’d rather not show up. We can only assume that inclusion is less important to trans women than beating women in unfair competition,” Davies told the Times..“All trans athletes are welcome in sport in peace and safety, but all athletes have to race with others of the same sex. Without sex-based fair play, women’s sport would be meaningless.”.Thomas used to race for the men's team at the University of Pennsylvania for three years. Then, Thomas took hormone-replacement therapy to lower his testosterone level so he could race with the women. In 2022, Thomas won the NCAA 500-yard freestyle title.
