Triathlon becomes the first British sport to ban all transgender women from competing in female events

UK Triathlon is the first British sport to ban all transgender women from competing in female competitions.

The new rules are aimed at making sure that a level playing field is enforced at all timed, ‘competitive events’ starting at 12 years of age and upward to professional levels.

As a result the men’s category will provide an ‘open’ distinction in which all trans athletes may compete, a new first for a national governing body. The new rule will also supersede the 2018 policy which allowed trans women to compete if they had suppressed testosterone.

The new rule will take affect in January 2023.

‘We concluded that triathlon is a gender-affected sport and that means that athletes who were born male have an advantage over athletes who were born female and this advantage is significant in swim, bike and run,’ said British Triathlon chief executive Andy Salmon. ‘We also concluded that physiological advantages are retained by testosterone suppression.

“The new policy will require two categories - a female category, which will be open to athletes who are female sex at birth, and an open category, which will be open to all athletes, including men and transgender athletes.

For international competition, only athletes who are female sex at birth will be eligible to represent Great Britain, England, Scotland or Wales in female competition.

“We believe this is the right policy for our sport in Great Britain. We are incredibly proud and precious about our tradition, and our key principle of gender equity, and that is why fairness in our sport is so important.

We have taken strong legal advice and believe our policy is legally robust.”

The decision is on the heels of the recent ‘trans summit’, where the UK Culture Secretary, Nadine Dorries, urged all sports governing bodies to ban trans athletes from competing against women.

The decision is also in line with the recent ruling by the FINA - the governing body of world swimming - to ban trans women swimmers and preserve the integrity of female competitions.

The ‘transgender athlete’ came into the spotlight with America’s Lia Thomas in swimming and Britain’s Emily Bridges in cycling – crushing historical records.

“This is a subject that many, many governing bodies are in discussion on and considering what to do about,” said Salmon.

Although he was not aware of any elite level transgender triathletes in Britain, Salmon said that ‘We didn’t want to be a governing body that waited for that to be a problem before we tried to fix it.

‘We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow or the next day, and we wanted to be ready for that day. I think that the entire sporting system will focus on doing what’s right, just like we have.’