The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected a challenge on Wednesday brought by Lia Thomas against World Aquatics’ ban on transgender athletes participating in the women’s category at elite swimming competitions, thus barring him from participating in the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The court’s rejection is a massive win for women’s sports and a major defeat for transgender athletes’ attempts to subvert biological reality.
World Aquatics’ transgender policy prohibits male athletes from competing against women, stating male-to-female transgender athletes are only granted permission to compete in the women’s category “if they can establish to World Aquatics’ comfortable satisfaction that they have not experienced any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later.”
“A biological female athlete cannot overcome that advantage through training or nutrition. Nor can they take additional testosterone to obtain the same advantage, because testosterone is a prohibited substance under the World Anti-Doping Code,” World Aquatics said.
According to its policy on eligibility, “World Aquatics should remain committed to the separation of athletes in sport into men’s and women’s categories based on biological sex.”
The policy was established in June 2022. Since then, World Aquatics has created an open category for transgender athletes to compete in.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld the World Aquatics ban. According to the New York Post, the international body said it has no authority “to modify such scope of application” determined by World Aquatics.
Riley Gaines, female sports advocate and plaintiff in a
