Keep Politicians and Governments Out of 2024 Olympics

One thing everybody at the United Nations can agree upon is sports. They each have their favorites and enjoy the good-natured boast or friendly cajole about their team and its record.

Also, they agree that what happens in sport should be determined by the referees and not by politicians or governments. They call this “the autonomy of sport.”

This is why U.N. membership has been mute on the practice of biological men competing in women’s sports events as women.

Advocates assert this as a long-overdue right for anyone regarding themself as a women, if not an actual female. With very little inclusive outreach to other stakeholders in women’s sports, they have mobilized athletes and programs to make it so by action, not negotiation.

Others believe it blurs femininity and would undo women’s social progress. So, they fear for the future of Title IV law expanding sport opportunities for females in lieu of celebrating its 50th year.

Yes, some males are muscling themselves onto women’s sports, literally. Males muscle-up through puberty beyond what females gain typically in muscle mass.

Then some males self-identify selectively as women and compete in women’s competitions provided that they have or lower their testosterone level per their sport’s regulations. The takeaway: women’s medals.

The song, sung by Helen Reddy decades ago, “I Am Woman,” (“I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman”) comes to mind. Clearly, the transgender agenda taken to women’s sport presents conflict in need of resolution.

Activists see this as setting a critical marker for full transgender equality in sport and society. Champions for female equality in sport prefer a more nuanced approach enabling transgender participation in sport with fairness to other stakeholders.

In which corner of this locker room are you most comfortable?

The United Nations has decided to remain in the stands. And it is probably the wise choice for now.

Why?

To figure out the gamebook here, sport’s “referees” (athletes, activists, leagues and federations) need the time and space to consider what is happening on the ground, insight from sport scholarship and the principle of fair play.

These efforts are needed lest activists (mostly U.S.) succeed through fait accompli in normalizing biological males in women’s sport into the status quo. This could short-circuit input from other stakeholders playing catch-up on this issue.

So, pending time-out discussions among those on the ground, U.N. membership can be excused for now for not pronouncing itself prematurely over this like a jumbotron.

Nonetheless, U.N. membership should be open to possible benefits from unexpected developments. And most certainly it should stand ready against any potential roll-back in women’s rights. Ultimately, elevating the status of women in society must not be sidelined by other virtues, whether contrived or in fact genuine.

In the meantime, here are updates for U.N. membership while in the bullpen.

• The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group stated that girls’/women’s competitive sport needs to be affirmed and trans girls/women need to be included with appropriate conditions. Others have argued that such conditions would continue to marginalize transgender people.
• World Athletics, the international federation for track and field, issued new rules that state that eligibility for the women’s category will be just for females. World Aquatics (FINA), the international federation for swimming, adopted such rules last year. Champion Women sees these new rules as pro-women.
• The International Olympic Committee has distinguished female from male athletes based on testosterone levels; trans identified males are still eligible into the men’s category and trans identified females not taking testosterone are still eligible into the women’s category.
• There is a surprisingly thin bench of research on this topic. Policymaking on transgender athletes is relatively new, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
• U.N. membership would need briefings to begin addressing transgender sports as there is no history of such considerations or agreements there. None of the 5,400 nongovernmental organizations accredited to the United Nations has addressed transgender sports issues significantly.
• Other dynamics: Federal legislative proposals are ambiguous with “either/or” approaches; states are passing conflicting laws; and there are pending legal challenges from all directions.

Remedy: the cultural battle in society needs to call a truce for an inclusive dialogue on science, policy and best practices.

So, as we draw closer to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this sports fairness issue will test most stakeholders and depend upon piecemeal measures, eclipsed only by whether to include war-mongering Russia onto the field of play.

The Olympic Ideal is not about winning, rather about participating. As for transgender athletes in particular, we shall see on what terms, and we shall see how U.N. membership readies its cards and which color it might show.