Should Transgender Athletes Compete in The Olympics Sports

President Biden signed an executive order on January 20, 2021, on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation”. This calls into question whether or not should transgender athletes compete in sports against non-transgender athletes in sports, but more specifically for the purpose of this essay, in the Olympics. Additionally, can this affect transgender athletes’ emotional or mental state, if not accepted?

The International Olympics Committee (“IOC”) was created on June 23, 1894 and is the supreme authority of the Olympic Movement. The International Olympics Committee states “Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles.”

In the article Empowering Women Through Sport “The world of sport remains plagued by many of the same gender inequalities that we see more broadly; issues such as unequal pay, gender-based violence, a lack of targeted investment and negative stereotypes and social norms”. Physiological Benefits of Sports and Activities, an article written by Alicia Garcia-Falgueras, the author confirms the relationship between different kinds of training and how it can affect any athlete’s emotions. Falgueras states that: “Relationship between physical exercise and levels of depression, are correlational rather than parametrical, indicating a possible preventive effect of depression”. If a transgender athlete is not allowed to compete in the Olympics it could potentially have an extreme negative impact on their mental status due to not only being disqualified because of how they identify (negative stereotypes and social norms), but also it will potentially decrease their training which could also correlate with depression.

Chris Mosier was born as a female in 1980. Mosier began competing in triathlons as a female in 2005. In 2010, Mosier underwent gender reassignment surgery. He is most famous for being known as the first known transgender athlete to qualify for the Olympic Trials, in the sport of racewalking, in the gender they identify as. The article, The Trailblazer (Katherine Kornei), talks about transgender athletes athletic abilities before and after their sex reassignment surgery and hormone therapy. Kornei states “A study of transgender women found their race times slowed after transitioning, but their age grades, which compare people to the best runners of the same sex and age, hardly changed, suggesting they have no advantage over non-transgender women”.

While sex reassignment surgery changes the malefemale organs, does it also affect the testosterone or hormone levels? Scientists have conducted research and studies of transgender athletes and non-transgender athletes to see if their testosterone or hormonal levels assisted them in leading their competition. Ethical Issues Concerning Transgender Athletes, by Victoria Chen, talks about the levels of both transgender and non-transgender athletes’ testosterone and other hormone levels. Chen says: “The study found that women with higher naturally occurring testosterone had a competitive advantage in the 400m dash, 400m hurdles, 800m run, hammer throw and pole vault, with margins between 1-5%”. Meaning that regular women who have higher (natural) testosterone levels have an advantage in any athletic, muscle, endurance sports. So what happens to transgender women and non-transgender women if their hormone levels are too high? According to the IOC, transgender athletes must be tested for a full year before, and also during the competition, and continuously reflect below a determined total testosterone level. Essentially, transgenders who have gone through sex reassignment surgery must also have hormone therapy treatment to achieve hormone levels equal to the natural born gender they are wanting to compete against.

Further studies reveal, in some cases, natural born females (and sometimes natural born males) have a malfunction with their chromosomes. Women chromosomes are characterized as XX, while mens chromosomes are characterized as XY. However, it has been medically noted that some females are born with an XY chromosome but their birth-like appearance is female. In these cases, their hormones can be different than females born with standard XX chromosomes.

In 1985, an athlete by the name of Maria Jose Martinez-Patino was well on her way to compete on the Olympic level as a hurdler in track and field. During that era, athletes had to undergo genetic testing to prove their sex. Patino passed her first sex test and was given a Certificate of Femininity, but she forgot the certificate when she went to try out for the World University Games in Kobe, Japan. She was given another test but, due to the results, she was asked to fake an injury and not compete. She was not given the results of her blood tests for two months. According to the article Essay: Suspect Sex (Alison Carlson), it was leaked to the press when Martinez-Patino was diagnosed with complete androgen insensitivity. From the fall out of the publicity, she was evicted from the athletes’ residence, rejected by the national team and her athletic dreams seemed to be all but over. In the article Personal Account, A Women Tried And Tested by Maria Jose Martinez-Patino: “I felt ashamed and embarrassed. I lost friends, my fiance, hope and energy”. She further revealed that she had no doubt that she was a woman and had no physical advantage based on her diagnosis. In 1988, she did end up coming out and fighting against the IOC to be able to participate in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. In the article The History and Current Policies on Gender Testing in Elite Athletes (Pino Diaz) says “Women with birth defects of the sex chromosomes do not possess an unfair advantage and should be permitted to compete as female”. Scientists originally believed that women with these chromosome malfunctions had male like advantages. However “Women born with aberrant chromosomes have no unfair, male-like physical advantages that XX women who pass tests cannot have as a matter of other forms of biological variation”. Martinez-Patino won her case. Patino tried to qualify during the trials for the 1992 Olympics, but due to being away from training for so long while fighting her case, she missed qualifying by ten hundredths of a second.

So based on the historical presentation of Maria Jose Martinez-Patino and women with chromosome abnormalities, the IOC may realize that these women who have the XY chromosomes and women with the regular XX chromosomes can still compete against each other and no one has an athletic advantage. The IOC still requires that all athletes take gender verification tests, because at any time there could be athletes who try to juke the competition while pretending to be the other gender. It is unclear whether they will alter this testing based on gender identification.

Another area to consider upon deciding whether or not to allow transgenders to compete in the gender they identify is the advantages or disadvantages of the differences of male and female muscle mass. In the study, Muscle Strength, Size, and Composition Following 12 Months of Gender-affirming Treatment in Transgender Individuals and conducted by Anna Wiik, et al (see Annotated Works Cited for complete list of individuals), they explored the effects of gender-affirming treatment on muscle function, size, and composition during 12 months of therapy. The study was conducted on 11 untrained transgender women and 12 untrained transgender men who started gender-affirming medical interventions under a specific design and setting. The results showed the transgender males increased strength and the transgender women maintained their strength levels.

What impact does the IOC’s decision have on transgenders’ mental health if they are not allowed to play in the Olympics, or even any sports? Emotion well-being: “Sport affects psychological elements such as self confidence and it also reduces the risk of depression”. “These advantages are only reachable when constancy and habitual sports are performed by the subject in hisher personal and individual path of overcoming”. Mosier states “What I really love is the training for these longer races over extended periods of time. There’s something very therapeutic about it”.

Transgender individiuals, in general, already have to overcome mental health obstacles due to biases and prejudices based on how they choose to live. “Homophobia (in this case discrimination against transgenders) can cause a loss of confidence, can damage the team cohesion and can negatively impact the psychological health potentially causing anxiety, depression, substance abuse or self harm behaviors”, according to Harassment and Abuse in Sport (IOC). Until now, transgenders have been fighting against the IOC on letting them be able to compete in the Olympics in the gender they identify as. When asked how the sport has accepted him, Chris Mosier replies: “This community has been incredible… Those sports were with me as I went through my process and through changing my name and pronouns and categories, and I felt very supported”. He also has stated: “I had some really heartbreaking moments… at races, specifically, but it wasn’t my competitors, it was the fans and the spectators there that posed the issue, and sometimes the volunteers''. Mosier is a well-known, outspoken advocate for transgender athletes on the student and Olympic levels.

There are some ways the IOC could help with transgender athletes’ mental health, one of the ways is simply asking questions. Knowing they (transgender athletes) have a right to be protected, knowing it is not their fault, knowing they are not alone, and talking to someone is another of the many ways the IOC believes athletes can be helped with mental health, per Harassment and Abuse in Sport (IOC).

One possible solution to the transgender athlete dilemma, would be for the IOC to create a Trans-Olympics. We already have the Olympics, the Paralympics and the Special Olympics, so why not create a specialized Trans-Olympics for transgender athletes? The only impediment with this solution is the fact that some transgender athletes may feel they are being ostrasized more than they were, leading to more mental health issues.

A more specific solution would be to conduct further in-depth studies. One such study could be getting a specific number of transgender men and transgender women athletes, measured against a specific number of non-transgender men and women athletes of the exact same weight and height as their counterparts. Over a 12-month period, regulate their nutrition, training and hormonaltestosterone levels. At the end of the 12-month period, conduct medical testing as well as strength, speed and endurance testing of each set of athletes (i.e., transgender men compared to men, transgender women compared to the women). If there is overwhelming evidence suggesting there is little to no difference in the results, then without a doubt, transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the gender they identify as.

To end up, the International Olympic Committee has introduced strict regulations governing the participation of all athletes in the Olympic games, transgender athletes included. Sports participation does have direct correlation to mental health of athletes. Further studies need to be conducted to ensure equality among all athletes.