TRIATHLON FOR ALL?

World Triathlon has yet to enter the transgender-athlete-in-sport debate, but as more sports face high-profile examples of trans women transitioning and achieving resounding victories, it's time for action and leadership in a sport revered for its equality. But how and where to even begin when the answer requires finding the right balance between inclusion and fairness? Tim Heming reports

- Tim Heming

Lia Thomas has rapidly become the most famous swimmer in US college history. For some, that represents a cause for celebration, a sign of a more enlightened and inclusive sporting world. For others, it's the latest blow to an embattled women's sport that's fighting for its very survival.

That views are so polarised partly explains why emotions run so high, and any middle ground looks a long way off as governing bodies fumble over finding acceptable policies to accommodate trans athletes in traditional male-female competition.

For much of the past year that seems to be what the National Collegiate Athletic Association has done in the case of Thomas. Formerly William Thomas, the University of Pennsylvania student who transitioned from male to female, completed the 12 months of hormone suppression treatment required before swimming competitively in college meets as a trans woman. While William Thomas was a middle-ranked collegiate swimmer for three years, Lia became the fastest woman freestyler in college sport.

The NCAA shifted uncomfortably at the predictable backlash. In January, its governing body, USA Swimming reduced the acceptable level of testosterone in the blood for trans women swimmers from under 10 nanomoles per litre to under 5 nmol/L and extended the requirement to be at this lower level to three years before competing. In addition - and seemingly in direct conflict with a new International Olympic Committee (IOC) framework issued in November - any trans woman swimmer would have to show they didn't have a lasting advantage from their male biology.