World Athletics bans transgender, reinstates Russia federation but her athletes remain banned
Coe said that despite RusAF's reinstatement that there would be no change in the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes currently in place
The World Athletics Council on Thursday banned transgender athletes from women's competition, altered DSD athlete regulations, reinstated the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) following seven years of suspension - and retained the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials.
As well as voting to exclude transgender athletes from women's competition, the Council has reduced the allowable testosterone level for athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) from 5nmol/litre to 2.5, a ruling that extends to all events and not just the previously restricted 400 metres to mile categories.
On the topic of transgender athletes Coe added: ""The Council has agreed to exclude male to female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female world ranking competitions from March the 31st this year.
"The majority of those consulted stated that transgender athletes should not be competing in women's competition... they believe there is insufficient evidence that trans women do not retain advantages over biological women."
The World Athletic position on this matter now corresponds broadly with that taken up by British Athletics and British Triathlon, which have backed an "open" category for “all individuals including male, [male and female] transgender and those non-binary who were male sex at birth”, while World Aquatics voted last June to make trans women athletes ineligible to compete in elite women’s swimming and diving, saying “fairness was non-negotiable”.
World Athletics had previously proposed a possible reduction in testosterone level to DSD athletes for transgender athletes wishing to compete in women's competition, but Coe said that had been a prompt to fuller discussion, and after consultations the Council rejected the option.
A World Athletics statement said: "The Council has agreed to exclude male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty from female World Rankings competition from 31 March 2023.
"World Athletics conducted a consultation period with various stakeholders in the first two months of this year, including Member Federations, the Global Athletics Coaches Academy and Athletes' Commission, the IOC as well as representative transgender and human rights groups.
"It became apparent that there was little support within the sport for the option that was first presented to stakeholders, which required transgender athletes to maintain their testosterone levels below 2.5nmol/L for 24 months to be eligible to compete internationally in the female category.
"In terms of DSD regulations, World Athletics has more than ten years of research and evidence of the physical advantages that these athletes bring to the female category.
"However, there are currently no transgender athletes competing internationally in athletics and consequently no athletics-specific evidence of the impact these athletes would have on the fairness of female competition in athletics.
"In these circumstances, the Council decided to prioritise fairness and the integrity of the female competition before inclusion.
"However the Council agreed to set up a Working Group for 12 months to further consider the issue of transgender inclusion.
"This Working Group will include an independent chair, up to three Council Members, two athletes from the Athletes’ Commission, a transgender athlete, three representatives of the Member Federations and representatives of the World Athletics Health and Science Department.
"Its remit will be to consult specifically with transgender athletes to seek their views on competing in athletics; to review and/or commission additional research where there is currently limited research and to put forward recommendations to Council."
Coe said that despite RusAF's reinstatement that there would be no change in the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes currently in place.
"Athletes and officials for Russia and Belarus are still excluded for the foreseeable future due to the invasion of Ukraine," Coe said.
Asked if that ban would only be reversed when Russia left Ukraine, Coe responded: "That was my instinct at the last Council meeting in Rome and it remains my instinct."
