{"id":496531,"date":"2022-02-06T06:13:45","date_gmt":"2022-02-06T13:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=496531"},"modified":"2022-02-06T09:51:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-06T16:51:09","slug":"unlike-ncaa-and-its-cowardly-approach-usa-swimming-demonstrated-leadership-with-new-transgender-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/unlike-ncaa-and-its-cowardly-approach-usa-swimming-demonstrated-leadership-with-new-transgender-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Unlike NCAA and Its Cowardly Approach, USA Swimming Demonstrated Leadership With New Transgender Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Unlike NCAA and Its Cowardly Approach, USA Swimming Demonstrated Leadership With New Transgender Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, it\u2019s amazing how a single issue can prompt such dichotomous reactions. Not so much in the opinions possessed, for the United States \u2013 it can be argued \u2013 is as fractured as it has ever been. Rather, the stunning part is how two groups charged with leadership duties can go about their business in such distinct fashion.<\/p>\n<p>We saw an example in the past week. It was the NCAA vs. USA Swimming in a battle of governing bodies and action.<\/p>\n<p>Rare are the days here in early 2022 when the debate surrounding <strong>Lia Thomas<\/strong> and transgender participation in sports is not a primary topic. It has been a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/lia-thomas-timeline-how-the-heated-debate-over-transgender-inclusion-has-evolved\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">leading theme in the sport<\/a> for two months, at the forefront of discussion due to Thomas\u2019 transition to female, and her desire to compete as a member of the women\u2019s program at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as Thomas raced to a pair of nation-leading times in the 200 freestyle and 500 freestyle during an early-season invitational, the debate over fairness took off. How much of a boost would Thomas maintain from her male-puberty advantage? What about the spots \u2013 relay and travel team \u2013 she would take from biological females? How would organizing bodies rule on the issue of fairness, and when?<\/p>\n<p>With the NCAA Women\u2019s Championships scheduled for Atlanta in mid-March, decisions and guideline adjustments required quick attention. The athletes involved \u2013 including Thomas \u2013 needed some clarity over the situation. For their parts, the NCAA and USA Swimming could not have carried themselves in more divergent fashion.<\/p>\n<p>In the simplest breakdown, the situation unfolded in the following manner.<\/p>\n<p>The NCAA took a cowardly approach, unwilling to identify its own guidelines and bylaws for the participation of transgender athletes in collegiate sports, specifically male-to-female transitions. Instead of drafting its own policy \u2013 regardless of support \u2013 the NCAA ran away from a difficult situation, and ultimately revealed it would follow whatever policy was adopted by USA Swimming.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side, USA Swimming \u2013 for the betterment of its members \u2013 took a proactive approach. After initially indicating it was working with FINA on a transgender-inclusion policy, USA Swimming didn\u2019t sit back and wait. With guts, it took a leading step forward and presented specific guidelines for how the organization would handle transgender-eligibility situations. In part, here is what USA Swimming decided in its new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usaswimming.org\/inclusion\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Athlete Inclusion, Competitive Equity and Eligibility Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>The elite athlete policy will be implemented by a decision-making panel comprised of three independent medical experts and eligibility criteria will consist of:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Evidence that the prior physical development of the athlete as a male, as mitigated by any medical intervention, does not give the athlete a competitive advantage over the athlete\u2019s cisgender female competitors.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2022 Evidence that the concentration of testosterone in the athlete\u2019s serum has been less than 5 nmol\/L (as measured by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry) continuously for a period of at least thirty-six (36) months before the date of application.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One group cowered in the corner.<\/p>\n<p>One organization led the way.<\/p>\n<p>Look, there is no mystery where I stand on this issue. Since the debate ignited, the argument here has been that Thomas should not race at the Ivy League Championships or the NCAA Championships. While it is terrific that Thomas has embraced her true gender identity, her inherent advantages \u2013 testosterone development, physical differences, lung capacity, etc. \u2013 from male puberty have provided an undeniable edge over biological females.<\/p>\n<p>From the start, this situation has been one about fairness \u2013 nothing more and nothing less. Of course, certain individuals have tried to peg those supporting biological females and their right to an equal playing field as transphobic. It is a go-to approach. And USA Swimming, through its stringent new guidelines, has already been accused \u2013 in some articles and on social media \u2013 as taking an anti-trans stance.<\/p>\n<p>No way. What USA Swimming did concerning this debate is place fairness at the center of the discussion. The governing body represents thousands of athletes and it needed to create bylaws that protected the opportunities of its biological females. Unlike the NCAA, it didn\u2019t leave the decision in the hands of another group. It also ensured that the women\u2019s sports category wasn\u2019t ripped apart, but instead was recognized as important and deserving of respect. Meanwhile, at the non-elite level, USA Swimming noted that it would continue to foster involvement and participation of transgender athletes.<\/p>\n<p>As USA Swimming developed its elite policy, it clearly performed considerable research and involved multiple stakeholders. It also provided evidence and details which emphasized why its action was necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe development of the elite policy therefore acknowledges a competitive difference in the male and female categories and the disadvantages this presents in elite head-to-head competition,\u201d the USA Swimming policy states. \u201cThis is supported by statistical data that shows that the top-ranked female in 2021, on average, would be ranked 536th across all short-course yards (25 yards) male events in the country and 326th across all long-course meters (50 meters) male events in the country, among USA Swimming members. The policy therefore supports the need for competitive equity at the most elite levels of competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Once the USA Swimming decision was rendered, leading women\u2019s sports advocate <strong>Nancy Hogshead-Makar<\/strong> acknowledged the promising development. A three-time Olympic champion, Hogshead-Makar has long fought for equality in women\u2019s sports and has used her broad and respected voice to draw attention to this debate \u2013 even before the Thomas debate surged into the national spotlight.<\/p>\n<p>In the days after the USA Swimming release, Hogshead-Makar helped 16 members of the Penn women\u2019s team and their families <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/penn-swim-team-members-ask-school-ivy-league-to-refrain-from-litigation-to-allow-lia-thomas-to-race-at-ncaas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">draft a letter to the NCAA<\/a>, Ivy League and University of Pennsylvania urging them to abide by the organization\u2019s guidelines, and not sue. That letter was sent a day after Penn formally stated that members of the women\u2019s team supported Thomas, despite only a few athletes truly taking that stance.<\/p>\n<p>A little more than a month before the NCAA Champs, it remains to be seen if the NCAA, as it previously noted, will abide by USA Swimming\u2019s new rules. In recent days, the collegiate governing body indicated it will review the situation at a meeting in late February. Yes, it\u2019s a typical NCAA move \u2013 waiting several weeks and just before the Championships before making a call. Leaving athletes to again blow in the wind? To no surprise, the NCAA is certainly checking that box.<\/p>\n<p>If Thomas is absent from the NCAA Champs, as should be the case, it is necessary to provide her with a chance to race in peak form in some fashion. A time trial or an exhibition could work. It would allow her to demonstrate her prowess in an environment not detrimental and unfair to biological females.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, more chapters to this saga will be written. But for now, USA Swimming deserves applause for its recent actions and how it has handled this current dilemma of transgender participation. The organization took a brave stance. It didn\u2019t hide. It didn\u2019t defer to another group. It protected fairness for its female members.<\/p>\n<p>Well done.<\/p>\n<p><em>All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlike NCAA and Its Cowardly Approach, USA Swimming Demonstrated Leadership With New Transgender Policy Sometimes, it\u2019s amazing how a single issue can prompt such dichotomous reactions. Not so much in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7533,"featured_media":496530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122077,6,17],"tags":[129951,27347,251,51820,2690],"class_list":["post-496531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-americas","category-college","category-commentary","tag-lia-thomas","tag-nancy-hogshead-makar","tag-ncaa","tag-transgender","tag-usa-swimming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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