CNN —
According to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, World Aquatics, the governing body of swimming, decided to prohibit trans athletes from competing in elite women’s swimming competitions. As a result, Lia Thomas has filed legal claims against the organization.
According to the international court system, the swimmer is objecting to some provisions of the World Aquatics’ female participation policy, which went into effect on June 20, 2022.
The policy that states transgender athletes must transition before the age of 12 or before they reach stage 2 of the puberty Tanner Stages in order to participate in the women’s categories is being challenged by Thomas’ legal team.
The judge stated in a news release on Friday that “Ms. Thomas accepts that fair competition is an appropriate sporting goal and that some regulation of transgender girls in swimming is appropriate.”
According to the release, “Ms. Thomas submits that the Challenged Provisions are irrelevant and unconstitutional because they discriminate against her in violation of the Olympic Charter, the World Aquatics Constitution, and European law, which also includes the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.” “… and that such discrimination cannot be justified as necessary, reasonable, or proportionate to achieve a legitimate sporting goal.”
World Aquatics is in charge of aquatic competitions in the areas of high diving, open water swimming, water polo, and swimming.
World Aquatics has been contacted by CNN for comment.
The policy also states that athletes who have previously used testosterone as part of female-to-male gender-affirming hormone treatment will only be eligible to compete in women’s competitions if the testosterone was used for less than a year in total, the treatment didn’t occur during puberty, and testosterone levels in serum are back to pre-treatment levels.
In order to create open category competitions for athletes who don’t meet the requirements for men’s or women’s categories, the governing body at the time committed to creating a new working group.
At a World Cup function in Berlin in October for “all sex and gender identities,” World Aquatics established an open group for transgender athletes in August.
According to swimming’s global governing body, “For this inaugural function, the focus is on gaining more experience for future development and celebrating diversity.”
Through her attorney, CNN has reached out to Thomas for opinion.
When questioned on Friday regarding Thomas’s case against World Aquatics, Anne Lieberman, director of policy and programs at Athlete Ally, a sports advocacy organization that fights homophobia and transphobia, responded to CNN by saying that the transgender policy of the organization seriously harms trans women, who are particularly vulnerable in society and experience higher rates of violence, abuse, and harassment both in the workplace and in sports.
According to Lieberman, the ban is not a just, reasonable, or proportionate controlling of rights. It has the effect of excluding almost all trans women athletes from international aquatics and is blatantly overwhelming.
According to the court, a hearing date for Thomas’ legal challenge has not yet been determined.
Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a Division I NCAA championship.
Thomas, a swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania who began competing on the school’s men’s swimming team in 2017 and later joined the UPenn women in 2020, brought attention to the transgender women swimming debate that resulted in the new gender inclusion policy and open category.
The NCAA mandated that trans athletes undergo hormone replacement therapy for a full year prior to competing at the time of her transition in 2019.
The NCAA’s new transgender athlete participation plans, which may make it impossible for Thomas to contend, were requested in a letter from 16 swim team members from the University of Pennsylvania and the Ivy League in February 2022.
They claimed Thomas had an “unfair advantage” in the email and expressed support for her gender transition outside of the pool but not necessarily inside.
Over 300 current and former athletes signed an open letter defending the transgender swimmer’s ability to compete in spite of the reaction, and Penn Athletics and the Ivy League continued to support her.
Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle competition in March 2022, making her the first trans athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship.
Transgender women, according to proponents of preventing them from participating in women’s sports, have a real advantage over cisgender women in sports.
However, the majority of research does not agree with that finding. There is “no direct or consistent research” on trans individuals having an athletic edge over their cisgender peers, according to a 2017 report in the journal Sports Medicine that reviewed various related studies. Critics claim that the restrictions increase the level of discrimination they experience.
Ben Church of CNN contributed to this report.
