International Swimming Federation votes to restrict transgender athletes from competing in elite women’s aquatics competitions

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) has voted to approve a new policy that will restrict most transgender athletes from competing in elite women’s aquatics competitions.

Swimming’s world governing body approved the new “gender inclusion” policy on Sunday, after 71.5% of FINA’s member federations voted in support at the FINA Extraordinary General Congress 2022.

The new gender inclusion policy, which is set to go into effect on June 20, 2022, says that male-to-female transgender athletes will only be eligible to compete in the women’s categories in FINA competitions if they transition before the age of 12 or before they reach stage two on the puberty Tanner Scale

The policy also says athletes who have previously used testosterone as part of female-to-male gender-affirming hormone treatment will only be eligible to compete in women’s competitions if the testosterone was used for less than a year in total, the treatment didn’t take place during puberty and testosterone levels in serum are back to pre-treatment levels.