Toward Fairness: The Future of Transgender and Non-Binary Swimmers
By Kerri Nicole McCaffrey – Guest Editorial
“But you have heard me say many times there should be no discrimination. Nobody should be excluded from our competitions. Our sport must be open to everybody.”
World Aquatics President, Husain Al-Musallam – 7/25/23
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I am excluded.
As I begin this piece, it would help in my quest to be objective to let everyone know that I write this from a place of immense hurt and sadness.
In full disclosure, I am someone currently enduring the suffocating reality of being “canceled” or made “unofficial” by United States Masters Swimming’s new interim policy on transgender athletes titled, Interim Policy on Participation in the Men’s and Women’s Competition Category and Eligibility for Official Recognition Programs. I want to try to lend my voice to each of the major swimming communities in an effort to urge them to pursue fairness for all swimmers.
Currently, I don’t have a way to compete in USMS or World Aquatics programs unless I do so as a male. But I’ve been a post-surgical transgender woman with little to no testosterone for more than two decades now—and have a proven record of not placing higher as a woman than I did as a male. Fairness seemed achieved in my own swimming transition—but effectively, I’ve been canceled.
Jim Wood, my coach at Berkeley Aquatic Club many years ago and the former President of USA Swimming, once said: “I would love to see an organization where everybody was concerned with USA Swimming number one, and their own personal agendas number two.”
In that spirit—and while feeling I have been treated poorly as a Masters Swimmer—here are ideas which might be perceived as a way for competitive swim organizations to achieve some fairness with their female, transgender female, and non-binary athletes.
The conclusion/prediction I reach here, as you will see, is not a happy outcome for me: I want to swim as the female I am—but I do think my analysis will show where competitive swimming is headed.
I want to consider specifically here fairness for people who are male to female transgender and for those people who are non-binary—non-binary swimmers who in their specific journeys (and there are multiple ways both transgender and non-binary people present themselves in the world) may find themselves needing to suppress testosterone because they have kept their testes or because they are using testosterone in their self-identifying process—or to help themselves feel more whole.
In discussing fairness for such athletes in swimming, more and more an “Open Division” is discussed, which might offer some transgender and non-binary swimmers a chance at full inclusion—perhaps even someday, up to Olympic waters.
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What follows are four of the largest competitive swim organizations for athletes of all ages and abilities—and brief synopses of their Transgender/Non-Binary swimmer inclusion policies. These are the most salient points, but I do recommend full readings of these policies if one desires every detail (which cannot be totally distilled into a short article). Most of these policies address transgender eligibility but certainly non-binary swimmers might be interested when a discussion of an “Open Division” arises.
USA Swimming:
(375,000 + members)
- Elite transgender female swimmers (those having made Junior National cuts or faster) and those 13-14 year old age groupers (and older) who want to compete for National Age Group records or for American records, must complete a self identity verification to begin the competition eligibility process. This must show that they are competing as a sex different from their birth designation and that this is how they present in everyday life as well.
- 36 months of documented testosterone testing must be shown with levels below <5 nmol/L.
- But in addition, USA Swimming has an “Elite Athlete/Event Fairness Panel.” Besides completing the aforementioned steps, a panel will examine the athlete more closely to ensure the athlete does not bring a competitive advantage to the elite meet’s female division in which she is entering.
A transgender female athlete, therefore, could technically meet these rigorous criteria, and for instance, win a spot on a USA Swimming World Championships team, however, not be eligible to swim in that World Championships because transgender females (most of them at least for now) have experienced male puberty past age 12 or Tanner Stage 2–which would prevent them from swimming as a female in any World Aquatics sponsored event.
World Aquatics:
(Over 100,000 swimmers worldwide)
All athletes must certify their chromosomal sex with their member federations before being able to swim in World Aquatics’ competitions. Therefore, transgender females (male to females with or without a sex change operation after they have progressed through puberty) are effectively ineligible for competition in the female category unless they can show that, growing up, they had complete androgen insensitivity—or were androgen sensitive but began female hormones/androgen blockers prior to age 12 or did not progress past Stage Two on the Tanner Scale measuring pubertal development.
*United States Masters Swimming:
60,000 + members
Policy Up until July 1, 2025, allowed transgender female swimmers to swim in the female division if they could show 12 months of testosterone levels below 5 nmol/L. They were then fully integrated as “official competitors” in USMS sanctioned meets in the female division—and for USMS’s recognition programs like National Top 10, All-Star, and All-American.
New USMS interim policy: Currently, there is no official division for transgender female swimmers in which to compete—unless they swim in the male division. If they swim in the male division, they are eligible for National recognition programs and to compete as “official competitors” in USMS sanctioned meets.
The NCAA:
23,000+ in swimming and dive
Those assigned male at birth may not compete as women—though they may practice with the team, etc.
NB: Exceptions available for individuals with 46 XY DSD in all four organizations.
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About Open Categories: In preparation for the World Cup Swim event in 2022, World Aquatics (formerly FINA) introduced an Open Division—poorly planned and not terribly well advertised. Was it any wonder this open division was canceled? CNN described the policy: “The new category will be open for ‘all sex and gender identities’ and will include 50m and 100m races across all strokes.” CNN, Sports: 8/17/23.
The fact that an Open Division would be “open for all…” is a travesty. Postoperative transgender females (with nearly no testosterone) would then compete against biological males with all of their testosterone. Or, they would be forced to compete against people who are non-binary and who might possibly still be able to produce testosterone—or who might be supplementing with it—which is their right and choice. But how does an open division with non-post surgical transgender people who are not on female hormones (some who still have active testes)—or people who are non-binary and who could, conceivably, still be naturally producing—or using testosterone—make sense from a fairness standpoint? Any post-surgical transgender person would be at a terrible disadvantage in such a “catch-all” division.
Therefore, there must be TWO OPEN divisions: The first one would be for postoperative transgender women who are living as women in everyday life and who are willing to do long-term testing (perhaps only 12 months for the more recreational but still competitive, USMS) to insure their testosterone has been adequately suppressed—as most likely it has been due to the bottom surgery (removal of their testes): a more elite organization such as USA Swimming could keep its rigorous 36 months of testing in place. It should be attainable for any post-surgical (i.e., no testes) transgender female to meet a <2.5 nmol/L competition threshold for eligibility in this division.
The second open division would be for non-post surgical female transgender people who still may have their testes (and therefore their testosterone), and for non-binary people who also may be producing testosterone naturally—or who are using it in their transitions to feel whole and who might feel uncomfortable in both the male and the female division. This division would not require testosterone testing and therefore would be difficult to manage fairly, especially at elite events.
So the future, at least for USA Swimming, the NCAA, and World Aquatics—will most likely hold four categories—and my guess is that USMS will not implement the 4th division:
- Biological Male Division
- Biological Female Division
- Non-Binary/Transgender Division (not testosterone tested)
- Post Surgical Transgender Division (with a testosterone testing requirement)
Many people will feel this is fair. I do not. But “the writing seems to be on the wall” for this to happen.
I end by repeating the words of the World Aquatics president just two years ago: “Nobody should be excluded…our sport must be open to everybody.
