It has recently been announced that transgender athletes will be welcomed with open arms at this year’s Olympics and will be able to compete without having to undergo sex reassignment surgery.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) have created a new set of guidelines in order to keep up with the changes in cultural and legal attitudes towards transgender issues.
The IOC previously stated that athletes had to undergo gender-reassignment surgery in order to participate in the Olympic games however the implementation of new guidelines suggests that the sporting world may finally be starting to relax their rules.
Former IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist has spoken out about the decision to change the restrictions put on transgender athletes, stating:
“We had to review and look into this from a new angle. We needed to adapt to the modern legislation around the world. We felt we cannot impose a surgery if that is no longer a legal requirement.”
The new guidelines, which are to be used as recommendations rather than regulations, state:
“To require surgical anatomical changes as a pre-condition to participation is not necessary to preserve fair competition and may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights.”
With these new changes in place male athletes will be able to compete “without restriction” and female athletes will be able to compete after one year of hormone replacement therapy to reduce their testosterone levels.
The former guidelines stated that all athletes must undergo gender reassignment surgery and a minimum of two years of hormone replacement therapy before they were eligible to compete in any of the games.
However with these new guidelines in place, all athletes are welcomed with open arms with female athletes simply having to demonstrate that the level of male testosterone in the body has been below 10 nanomols per liter for one year.
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