USA TODAY and Yahoo may earn commission from links in this article. Pricing and availability subject to change. Researchers whose findings have cast doubt on a competitive advantage for transgender women athletes appear to have been excluded from anInternational Olympic Committeeworking group tasked with creating anew policy on female participation. That includes the authors of a 2024 study funded by the IOC that found transgender athletes might actually be at a competitive disadvantage, and urged caution in imposing participation bans. "I was not included. I'll let you extrapolate as to why," one of the researchers told USA TODAY Sports in an email confirming they were not part of the IOC's Protection of the Female Category Working Group and had not been asked to participate. The IOC did not respond to an email from USA TODAY Sports requesting comment. New IOC president Kirsty Coventry announced the working group in June following increasing efforts to bar transgender women and women with differences in sex development (DSD) from sports. Though there has been onlyone openly transgender athlete at the Olympic Games since 2004, when the IOC created protocols for their participation, several global sport federations have limited or banned transgender athletes.World AthleticsandWorld Boxinghave gone even further, imposing genetic testing requirements. In announcing the working group, Coventry said it would operate "with a scientific approach." Asked about it Friday, she said the panel was "only made up of experts. … Experts that are coming from human rights, from medical and from legal, as well as the sport movement." But the IOC appears to have predetermined the outcome of the working group, given its makeup. The IOCwill not release the namesof those in the working group "to protect the integrity of the group and their work." But USA TODAY reached out to eight prominent researchers whose studies and/or analyses have found no evidence of a clear competitive advantage for transgender women or women with DSD.The six who responded said they were not part of the IOC's working group nor had they been asked to participate. Three of the six were co-authors on astudy published last year in the British Journal of Sports Medicinethat found transgender women had lower lung function and cardiovascular fitness than cisgender female athletes. Winter Olympics:NBCUniversal announces 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony hosts "While longitudinal transitioning studies of transgender athletes are urgently needed, these results should caution against precautionary bans and sport eligibility exclusions that are not based on sport-specific (or sport-relevant) research," the researchers wrote. That study was partially funded by the IOC. The IOC's apparent selective use of data to craft a policymirrors what the LPGA and U.S. Golf Association didlast year. When the organizations effectively banned transgender women, they said they did so on the advice of medical experts and research that showed going through male puberty would give transgender women a competitive advantage in golf. But neither the LPGA nor USGA would provide details on either the experts or the science they used. And contrary to anyone's claim, there still have beenno reliable studies showing transgender women athletes with a clear, competitive advantageover cisgender women athletes. Most of the studies used to ban transgender women so far are based on the performances of cisgender men, which scientists have argued is not an appropriate comparison. Other studies have compared the performances of transgender women athletes with sedentary cisgender women, also argued as an inappropriate comparison. Part of the reason for this is because there are so few transgender athletes to study — a number that advocates argue will shrink further with these bans. NCAA president Charlie Baker said last year there were"less than 10"transgender athletes out of 510,000 collegiate athletes. There are no openly transgender athletes in the WNBA, NWSL or WTA. "The composition of that (IOC) advisory board will say a lot," one researcher told USA TODAY Sports. Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:IOC panel on transgender participation excludes researchers against bans
0 Comments