Abstract:
There is current scientific and legal controversy about sports competition eligibility regulations for transgender athletes. In this case study, we quantified performances by an elite, transgender woman (male sex, female gender identity) college swimmer who competed in both the men\'s and women\'s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) categories. We also contextualized her performances with respect to world-record performances and contemporary elite college swimmers. These data demonstrate that the declines in freestyle swimming performances of a transgender woman after about 2 yr of reported feminizing gender-affirming hormone treatment (0.5% for the 100 to 7.3% for the 1,650 yard distance) are smaller than the observed sex-related differences in performance of top 200 world record performances in metric distances of similar durations (11.4% for the 100 m to 9.3% for the 1,500 m distance). Despite slower performances, the transgender woman swimmer experienced improvements in performance for each freestyle event (100 to 1,650 yards) relative to sex-specific NCAA rankings, including producing the best swimming time in the NCAA for the 500-yard distance (65th in the men\'s category in 2018-2019 to 1st in the women\'s, 2022). Similarly, NCAA-ranked male swimmers had no improvements in rank in the men\'s category during the same time frame. Our findings suggest that the performance times of the transgender woman swimmer in the women\'s NCAA category were outliers for each event distance and suggest that the transgender woman swimmer had superior performances relative to rank-matched swimmers. Our analysis may be useful as a framework for regulators considering participation guidelines, which promote fair competition for all athletes-irrespective of gender identity.NEW & NOTEWORTHY This case study, longitudinal analysis of freestyle swimming performances before and after 2 yr of feminizing gender-affirming hormone therapy of an elite transgender woman (male sex, female gender identity), demonstrates superior performance relative to rank-matched female swimmers and a lower performance gap than previously observed between elite male and female swimmers.
摘要:
关于跨性别运动员的体育比赛资格规定,目前存在科学和法律争议。在这个案例研究中,我们量化了精英的表现,变性女性(男性,女性性别认同)参加男子和女子NCAA类别比赛的大学游泳运动员。我们还将她的表演与当代精英大学游泳运动员联系起来。这些数据表明,经过大约两年的女性化性别确认激素治疗(1650码距离的100至7.3%为0.5%)后,变性女性的自由泳表现下降幅度小于观察到的性别相关差异顶级运动员的表现(1650码距离的100至9.3%为11.4%)。尽管表现较慢,跨性别女子游泳运动员在每个自由泳项目(100至1650码)中的表现相对于特定性别的NCAA排名有所改善,包括在500码距离的NCAA中创造最佳游泳时间(在2018-19年度男子类别中排名第65位,在女子类别中排名第1位,2022年)。同样,在相同的时间范围内,NCAA排名的男性游泳运动员在男子类别中的排名没有显着提高。我们的研究结果表明,在女子NCAA类别中,跨性别女子游泳运动员的表现时间是每个事件距离的异常值,包括100-,200-,500-,和1650码自由泳项目。我们的分析可能有助于监管机构考虑参与准则,以促进所有运动员的公平竞争-无论性别认同如何。