A transgender runner was barred from participating in U.S. Olympic trials because the athlete did not meet the World Athletics requirements.
CeCe Telfer was supposed to run in this week’s 400-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic trials but was not allowed to compete as the 2019 World Athletics guidelines require participants’ testosterone levels to be below a certain point for a span of 12 months, according to the Associated Press.
BIOLOGICAL MEN IN WOMEN’S WEIGHTLIFTING? THE NUMBERS SHOW IT’S JUST AS ABSURD AS IT SOUNDS
David McFarland, Telfer’s manager, said the athlete would respect the ruling and keep preparing for the future.
“CeCe has turned her focus towards the future and is continuing to train. She will compete on the national, and world, stage again soon,” McFarland said.
Telfer ran track for the men’s team at Division II Franklin Pierce University, took time off, and then joined the women’s team. Telfer won the women’s NCAA title in 2019.
USA Track & Field explained that World Athletics governs the eligibility requirements for the Olympics in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Following notification from World Athletics on June 17 that the conditions had not yet been met, USATF provided CeCe with the eligibility requirements and, along with World Athletics, the opportunity to demonstrate her eligibility so that she could compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials,” the statement read. “According to subsequent notification to CeCe from World Athletics on June 22, she has not been able to demonstrate her eligibility.”
In a piece for Women’s Health published June 17, Telfer wrote about not identifying “as a male athlete” — rather, during meets, the runner would “say to myself that I’m a female athlete competing in a sport that I love.”
“People will continue to point and laugh, but at the end of the day, all I can say is meet me on the track, and we’ll see who is faster,” Telfer wrote, addressing critics. “To other athletes who don’t accept me as a competitor, meet me on the track, and when we are running the same race, the books will tell you something you can’t deny: She’s fast.”
USATF said it “strongly” supports inclusivity and “providing a clear path to participation in the sport for all, while also maintaining competitive fairness. If CeCe meets the conditions for transgender athlete participation in the future, we wholeheartedly back her participation in international events as a member of Team USATF.”
While Telfer’s Olympic dreams were put on hold, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, 41, is set to compete in the Tokyo Olympics as the first transgender athlete in the history of the games after meeting a number of eligibility requirements.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Hubbard will partake in the women’s heavyweight 87-kg category on Aug. 2, the New Zealand Olympic Committee announced on Monday. The powerlifter has met regulations from the International Weightlifting Federation, the International Olympic Committee, and the NZOC.
Transgender athletes’ participation in sports has become a hot-button issue in recent months. Many conservatives argue that allowing transgender athletes to compete against those who share their gender identity and not their biological sex would give them an unfair advantage. Pro-trans activists, however, argue that such exclusion is discriminatory.
The Summer 2020 Tokyo Olympics were supposed to take place in 2020, but the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic last spring forced a postponement. The games are expected to start at the end of next month.
