NCAA To Review USA Swimming Transgender Policy At End of February

The NCAA will review the transgender policy recently implemented by USA Swimming prior to the women’s NCAA Championships next month, making it possible the new guidelines will be adopted by the organization ahead of the competition which begins on March 16.

The NCAA’s Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports will meet at the end of February to review USA Swimming’s policy, NCAA spokeswoman Gail Dent told The New York Times on Wednesday. The committee will then pass on any recommendations to the NCAA Board of Governors for consideration.

The Board of Governors aren’t scheduled to meet again until April, but Dent said they could possibly meet remotely prior to the start of the NCAA Championships.

The need for an updated policy has come to light amidst the ongoing transgender discussion in the sport, sparked by the performances of Lia Thomas, a trans woman, who competes for the University of Pennsylvania in the NCAA.

On January 19, the Board of Governors adopted a new sport-by-sport transgender policy in the NCAA, leaving each individual sport’s national governing body, in this case, USA Swimming, to determine rules for inclusion among transgender athletes.

USA Swimming then published its new set of criteria earlier this week, though it remained unclear whether or not these guidelines would impact Thomas’ eligibility to compete at the women’s NCAA Championships (or the Ivy League Championships, which will run later this month).

Ivy League executive director Robin Harris told The New York Times that the NCAA’s willingness to potentially change eligibility standards mid-season is a rash and unprecedented decision.

“It’s wrong. It’s unfair,” Harris said. “This is a perfect example of the risks and the uncertainty that is created when the NCAA chose to implement a policy immediately without any specificity. This is reactionary and it creates uncertainty, and the impact it creates on our transgender athletes is something I’m concerned about.”

On Thursday, a group of 16 members on the Penn women’s swim team sent an open letter to the Ivy League and the University of Pennsylvania asking them to follow USA Swimming’s policy and not partake in legal action with the NCAA.

While whether or not Thomas will be required to follow USA Swimming’s policy in order to compete at the NCAA Championships will be determined by the NCAA meeting at the end of February, she remains fully eligible to compete at the Ivy League Championships, which run Feb. 16-19.

USA Swimming’s new policy requires an athlete to provide the following:

• Evidence that the prior physical development of the athlete as a male, as mitigated by any medical intervention, does not give the athlete a competitive advantage over the athlete’s cisgender female competitors.
• Evidence that the concentration of testosterone in the athlete’s serum has been less than 5 nmol/L (as measured by liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry) continuously for a period of at least thirty-six (36) months before the date of application.

The previous International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy was 10 nanomoles per liter, double the standard USA Swimming is implementing.

Joanna Harper, a visiting fellow for transgender athletic performance at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, told The New York Times USA Swimming’s requirement for transgender women to maintain a testosterone level below 5 nmol/L for a 36-month period was unprecedented and not backed by scientific data.

“There is just no justification for three years,” Harper said.

Harper, a transgender woman and long-distance runner, said that suppressing testosterone in transgender women decreases hemoglobin levels within the first few months of hormone therapy, affecting how much oxygen can be carried into red blood cells and decreasing muscle mass. She said the largest changes in strength occur during the first year, and in her own experience, her competitive advantages declined after nine months of hormone therapy.

The New York Times also reported that there are experts who find it “worrisome” that nominees for the three-person panel reviewing transgender swimmer applications could be vetoed by an athletes’ advisory council.

“The concern I have about many of these policies is they’re very onerous to the athletes to prove their gender, which have involved some pretty invasive questions and physical exams,” said Carol Ewing Garber, a professor of movement sciences at Teachers College, Columbia University who studies transgender athletes.

“There’s lots of hoops for the athlete to go through, but they haven’t considered the inherent bias we have in our culture against them.”

The Women’s Ivy League Championships are scheduled for February 16-19, with the Women’s NCAA Championships slated for March 16-19.