Former Olympic champion Giaan Rooney says she supports Cate Campbell and other female swimmers who spoke out in support of FINA’s transgender policy, but says more research is required and the governing body should conduct a regular review of their contentious ban.
Rooney called for a “fluid” approach to rules around transgender athletes in elite competition after Australian legend Ian Thorpe denounced FINA’s decision to prohibit male-to-female transgender athletes from racing against women if they’d transitioned after 12, or experienced any physical parts of male puberty.
At a congress in Budapest in June, 71 per cent of the FINA’s 152 national federations voted for the proposed rules after a report from a FINA scientific panel found trans women retained an advantage over cisgender female swimmers, even if they had taken medication to lower testosterone levels.
“This is a very complicated issue, I can’t deny that, and I am personally opposed to the position FINA has taken on this,” Thorpe said on Tuesday. “I am for fairness in sport, but I’m also for equality in sport. And in this instance, they’ve actually got it wrong.”
Though FINA’s rules only apply at an elite level, Thorpe said the ruling had been damaging to a vulnerable community.
The FINA ruling was criticised as based on “opinion not science” but in an emotional address in Budapest, Campbell said while she believed strongly in inclusivity, removing a gender category distinction would be to the “detriment of female athletes everywhere”.
Ian Thorpe says FINA got it wrong when it banned transgender athletes.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“The incongruity that inclusion and fairness cannot always work together is one of the reasons why it is so difficult to talk about this topic,” Campbell said.
“Usually, they are terms of absolutes which work together, yet science now tells us, that in this issue, they are incompatible.”
Rooney said she too wrestles with the conundrum of wanting to fight for both fairness and inclusion, and believes not enough research has been done to be certain they are irreconcilable.
But she said ex-athletes such as herself and Thorpe should respect the views of current athletes like Campbell.
Cate Campbell addressed the FINA Congress in Budapest in June.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“It is difficult for someone who is no longer an athlete, and hasn’t been an athlete for a long period of time, to make a stance on this,” Rooney said.
“Where it probably has to most be taken notice of is from the athletes who are in the sport at the moment, and the females in particular who are in the sport at the moment. They made their stance fairly clear and I think that’s who we have to listen to.”
Rooney said FINA and other sports should pour more time and effort into researching the science of transgender advantage in sport.
“The hardest thing about this is there is no winning, from any side. No matter how you look at this,” she said.
Giaan Rooney says more research is required.
“What I said even before the ruling, and what still needs to be done in my opinion, is we still don’t have enough data. We don’t have enough research, so we are making decisions without a proper platform to make those decisions on.
“[FINA’s ban] shouldn’t be set in concrete and more than anything, there needs to be a lot more data and a lot more research, and from a lot more different people as well, and experts in different fields.
“I think it is needs to be quite fluid in terms of rules, and looked at often.
“And as more data and more research is available, and the more people have a handle on the complexities, then FINA should be looking at their ruling again and again, as often as is needed.”
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