The international swimming authority announced Sunday that post-pubescent male-born swimmers will be banned from female races, dousing transgender athlete Lia Thomas’s hopes of competing against women at the Olympics.
The International Swimming Federation (FINA) said that 71.5% of federation members voted to adopt a revised “gender inclusion policy” after reviewing the conclusions of a working group established in November to examine the scientific and human-rights issues associated with transgender swimmers.
“We have to protect the rights of our athletes to compete, but we also have to protect competitive fairness at our events, especially the women’s category at FINA competitions,” said FINA President Husain Al-Musallam in a statement.