Sweden —
Athletes who have undergone sex change operations
will be eligible to compete in the Olympics for the first
time under new rules being finalized by the IOC.
The International Olympic
Committee <http://www.olympic.org/>
convened a meeting in Sweden last month of medical
experts in the field and will announce its policy in the
next few weeks.
"We will have no
discrimination," IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch
told The Associated Press on Thursday. "The IOC
will respect human rights."
Details are still being
worked out, but Schamasch said transsexual athletes will
be eligible for the Olympics once they have passed a
certain amount of time after sex-change
surgery.
"The trend is to have an
ineligibility period," he said. "Then after certain
conditions have been fulfilled, the athlete will be able
to compete in his or her new sex."
The exact length of the
waiting period hasn't been determined. Schamasch said
officials want to make sure that any side effects of
hormone therapy have worn off.
Schamasch said he didn't
know whether there were any potential transsexual
athletes in line to compete in next summer's Athens
Olympics, but noted that several international sports
federations have asked the IOC for guidance.
"We need to be
proactive," he said.
The rule covers both
male-to-female and female-to-male cases.
Some contend transsexual
athletes have a physical advantage against other women.
Men have higher levels of testosterone and greater
muscle-to-fat ratio and heart and lung capacity. However,
doctors say, testosterone levels and muscle mass drop
after hormone therapy and sex-change surgery.
Until 1999, the IOC
conducted gender verification tests at the Olympics but
the controversial screenings were dropped before the 2000
Sydney Games.
One reason for the change
was that not all women have standard female chromosomes.
In addition, there are cases of people who have ambiguous
genitalia or other congenital conditions.
Over the decades, there
have been various accusations of men impersonating women
and competing in the Olympics.
"The eligibility of
transsexuals to participate needs to be clarified and
dealt with," Arne Ljungqvist, the IOC medical commission
chairman who organized the meeting of experts in
Stockholm.
One of the best-known
cases of transsexuals in sports involves Renee Richards
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renee_Richards>,
formerly Richard Raskin, who played on the women's tennis
tour in the 1970s.
Recently, Canada's
Michelle Dumaresq <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Dumaresq>
made news competing as a mountain bike racer. Formerly
Michael, Dumaresq had sex reassignment surgery in 1996
and competed for Canada at last year's World
Championships in Austria. She finished 24th in the
downhill discipline.
"I'm in contact with
several other athletes with a trans history and some
could qualify for the next Olympics," she said in an
e-mail message. Dumaresq still has a license to race.
While mountain biking is an Olympic event, her discipline
is not.
