Tuesday 4 October 2022 11:42 PM The sports BANNING trans women from competing in female-only events trends now
A new study may have proven what female athletes have been insisting for years — transwomen have a biological advantage in sport.
Experts from Brazil found that while transwomen, men who identify as women and have undergone hormone therapy, have less muscle mass than normal men they still have higher levels than biological women.
Transwomen's inclusion in sport is a divisive topic, with some arguing that people should be allowed to compete without restrictions in category of the gender they identify as.
But female athletes have said this could lead to the extinction of biological women from elite sport, with transwomen having a physical competitive edge.
Here, MailOnline details some of the sports that are taking a stand on the issue.
More and more sports are starting to reexamine the issue of transwomen competing against biological females, with some sports ruling it out entirely with others setting stricter requirements
Earlier this year British Triathlon became the the first sport to ban transwomen from competing in female events at all levels (the finish line at Weymouth's IRONMAN 70.3 last month)
Triathlon bans transgender women from all female events
Triathlon, an exhausting sport consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances, became the first to ban transwomen from competing in female events at all levels earlier this year.
British Triathlon's landmark decision in July bars transwomen from participating in female events at all levels of the sport from January 2023.
This includes everything from national events for elite athletes to grassroot local races.
In exchange, the body will abolish the men's category, changing it to a new 'open' format allowing transwomen to compete there.
Speaking at the time, British Triathlon chief executive Andy Salmon said they recognised those born male had an inherent athletic advantage over those born female.
'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,' he said.
The national body recognised this advantage was retained even when testosterone was suppressed.
Rugby bars transwomen from female-only games
In July this year, Britain's rugby sporting bodies, The Rugby Football League (RFL) and Rugby Football Union (RFU), banned transwomen from competing in female-only forms of the game.
The RFL's decision applied to contact rugby for under-12s categories and above, while the RFU's applied to all forms of the sport for the same age cohort.
It echoed the decision by the global body, World Rugby, which in 2020 said that transwomen should not compete at elite and international women's events.
In its announcement, the RFU said an evidence review had determined that being inclusive could not outweigh the impact on safety of women and fairness in the game.
Transwomen rugby players have been banned from playing in female-only games in Britain over concerns of safety and fairness (England's Helena Rowland celebrates scoring her side's first try during the Womens Rugby International match between England Women and Wales last month)
'This science provides the basis of the new gender participation policy that concludes the inclusion of trans people originally recorded male at birth in female contact rugby cannot be balanced against considerations of safety and fairness,' it said.
Swimmers who had 'male puberty' barred from female-only events
Any transwoman who underwent any stage of male puberty, and developed more muscles as a result, were banned from competition in women's races by the Fédération Internationale De Natation (FINA).
The policy, announced in June by the international swimming body, only applies to elite and international events.
Like British Triathlon, FINA created a new 'open' category for athletes whose gender differs from their sex-at-birth as part of its announcement.
Swimming is one of the most infamous battlegrounds about whether allowing transwomen to compete alongside biological females is fair.
This is due to the rise of US trans swimmer Lia Thomas who has proceeded to smash a series of swimming records and win numerous medals after transitioning and starting to compete in women's events.
Rules for swimming have also changed with the sport's international authority forbidding athletes who underwent 'male puberty' from competing in female-only races (Ullswater open water swimming event in 2017)
University of Pennsylvania transwomen swimmer Lia Thomas (left) next to Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines (pictured in March 2018)
She was also criticised for allegedly taking her penis out in the women's locker room to the horror of other swimmers, by a fellow athlete.
British Swimming's polices do not go as far as FINA's.
They currently state a transwoman has to provide information that their testosterone levels have been reduced to the level of a
