The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) recommended Monday that sports consider “category qualifiers,” or open categories, to allow transgender individuals to compete once they reach puberty, ABC News reports.
The USOPC supports and oversees teams for the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games, Youth Olympic Games, Pan American Games, and Parapan American Games. Some sports have category qualifiers, which create separate categories for individuals suffering from certain impairments, to ensure fair competition. (RELATED: Transgender Activist Blames Laws Against Child Sex Change Procedures For ‘Anti-LGBTQ Violence’)
The committee said that before puberty, efforts should be directed towards encouraging participation in sports, according to the outlet.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has put forward a proposal for transgender athletes, encouraging individual sports to consider “category qualifiers.”https://t.co/7QNQZfHhum
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) December 19, 2022
“Here, we believe the science is clearer that there is much less physical safety or competitive risk, or sporting advantage based on physiological sex characteristics,” the proposal wrote.
After puberty, the report suggests looking at participation on a case-by-case basis amid fears that testosterone differences would lead to an unfair playing field. “There’s already that opportunity to delineate based on different things, and every sport is different,” Nitra Rucker, the USOPC’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion, said. “So you have to look at it on a sport-by-sport basis.”
The British Triathlon created an “open” category for transgender athletes in July. The governing body announced that there would be two categories for athletes over the age of 12 — one for female athletes and another for female athletes who identify as male.
Athletic competitions across the nation are being swept by biological men identifying as women, according to an analysis by the Daily Caller News Foundation. A Washington Post poll found that most Americans don’t want male athletes competing in girl’s sports.