The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has pulled back on implementing its new rules for transgender athletes after scientists could not agree on the basic ideas in the rules.
The IOC had hoped that their scientific advisors could agree to halve the permitted levels of testosterone in transgender athletes, but the experts could not agree, according to the Guardian.
The current guidelines issued in 2015 maintain that men claiming to be transgender women can compete in the female categories even if they have not completed the transformational surgery only if their testosterone level measures below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months before competing.
While some of the IOC’s experts insisted that the current requirements could be lowered further without creating an unfair playing field, others are pointing to recent research which claims that testosterone levels really have little effect on a transgender woman’s biologically male muscle strength.
The Guardian reports that the IOC’s experts went around and around over the issue but could not agree that the new guidelines are warranted.
Another source told the paper that the IOC still has hopes of getting a consensus, but agreement “proved far more difficult than expected because this is such a tricky political and emotive issue.”
In nearly every area of sports where former men compete as women, they have become instant champions over the biological female athletes. From U.S. high school sports, to international cycling competition, to Australian handball, to New Zealand weight lifting, nearly every time a biological male enters women’s categories, biological females lose.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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