Swim Ireland, the national governing body of swimming, has announced a ban on transgender women competing in the same category as biological females.
The organisation’s new Transgender and Non-Binary Participation and Competition Policy relates to swimming, including open water and masters swimming, and diving at national level, with a separate policy for water polo to be released in due course.
Swim Ireland said in a statement that it had developed the new policy following a comprehensive consultation process, internally with the Swim Ireland Board, Staff, National Committee Members, Club members and transgender and LGBTQ+ individuals and representative organisations, along with National and International Governing Bodies of Sport.
Following the consultation, the body said that the views of its members and external stakeholders were “aligned in terms of general competition” in the aquatics. However, in terms of competition, Swim Ireland said “views differed.”
It said: “Whilst transgender individuals and representative groups have generally advocated for no restrictions in the competitive space, the overwhelming majority of our membership believe that the biological female competition category needs to be protected to ensure fair competition.
“World Aquatics Scientific Panel Report concludes that transgender women swimmers retain a significant advantage over cisgender female swimmers, even after reducing their testosterone levels through medication. Having considered all views, and the currently available data, we have opted to adopt a Policy whereby we will have two competition categories, Female (athletes with a birth sex of female) and Open (athletes with a birth sex of male, transgender or non-binary competitors and any competitor not eligible for the female category).”
Sports Ireland added: “Although every athlete will be able to compete through one of these categories, we understand that the Policy position we are taking will not be welcomed by all representative groups. In conclusion, we have determined that the views of our membership to prioritise fair competition must take precedence.”
The policy, published last week, has been welcomed online. Independent Sport Policy researcher, Cathy Devine, wrote: “Swim Ireland becomes yet another governing body of sport to uphold equal competitive opportunities for females.”
Retired British rower Patricia Reid also showed her support for the sports body, tweeting: “Hooray for Swim Ireland. Protecting female sports is NOT exclusion – it is the ultimate inclusion tool #SexMatters.”
The decision comes on the heels of new UK research, published in the Journal of Sports Sciences last month, which showed that the majority of female athletes surveyed supported the categorisation of women’s sport by biological sex, rather than gender identity.
The landmark research, conducted by Manchester Metropolitan and Swansea universities, the largest of its kind to date, found that 58 per cent of respondents favoured categorisation by biological sex. This increased to 77 per cent among ‘world class’ athletes – those who had competed in Olympic or World Championship finals – when it came to their own sports.
The peer-reviewed study reported the opinions of 175 national, elite and world-class female athletes from a range of sports and countries regarding the eligibility and inclusion of transgender athletes.
Respondents included 26 World champions, 22 Olympians – including two gold, two silver and three bronze medal winners – and six Paralympians.