With every day sports are revising how they look at transgender athletes who are seeking to compete in the women’s division.
Following recent moves from the World Swimming organization (FINA) to ban trans athletes from participating in female divisions if they underwent puberty, World Boxing Council is planning to open up the topic.
Once per year, the sanctioning body meets to discuss a range of issues within the sport. This time, trans participation is on the docket.
On Tuesday, the WBC put out a statement titled: “The WBC will address transgender boxing at its next convention.”
It read: “The participation of transgender people in combat sports is a controversial topic.
“It’s argued that transgender women have an unfair advantage over cisgender women in competitive sports and may endanger them, due to differences in human physiology, and that these differences are not sufficiently reversed by transgender hormone therapies.
“Another opinion sector argues that medically prescribed puberty blockers and estrogen, suppress testosterone levels and reduce muscle mass in transgender women, reducing potential competitive advantage.
“The WBC values are loyalty, fairness, integrity and fairness.
“We elevate boxing and protect the health and well-being of all boxers as our number one priority.”
“We are committed to protecting human rights, eradicating discrimination and helping those who need it most.
“We believe that boxing is for everyone.
“At our next annual Convention, transgender boxing will be one of the main topics to be discussed.”
Back in 2020, WBC president Sulaiman made his personal stance on transgender boxing abjectly clear.
“Transgender is not accepted because there’s a difference between a man and a woman.”
“The WBC does not accept transgender boxing. There’s only male and female, there’s no in between.”
“People say it has to be the same – so you mean we have to do pregnancy tests for men as well?”
“I mean, it’s a really big difference.”
It’s unclear as of right now if his stance had changed.