In a world increasingly fixated on regulations, the International Women’s Sports Federation (IWSF) announced today that Lia Thomas, the high-profile transgender athlete at the center of ongoing debate, has been banned from competing in women’s sports.
Let’s address the elephant in the room—or in this case, the grizzly bear on the diving board. Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, has been making waves—literally and figuratively—in competitive swimming for some time now. Every time she dives in, the public discourse dives in with her, rekindling the fiery debate over transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Now, the International Women’s Sports Federation (IWSF)—a name that sounds like it was borrowed from a sci-fi franchise—has decided enough is enough. They’ve officially barred Thomas from competing in women’s sports, ushering her out with all the grace of a matador twirling his cape.
The IWSF justifies its decision with what it calls a “scientific consensus” regarding physical differences between cisgender and transgender athletes. Of course, one can’t help but recall past “scientific consensuses”—like when people thought the Earth was flat or that it sat at the center of the universe. Hopefully, their sources are a bit more up-to-date this time.
At a recent press conference, the IWSF president—Sir Reginald Pompous III, in full aristocratic splendor—defended the ban with all the poise of a walrus attempting ballet on a unicycle. “We just need to ensure an equal playing field,” he declared. A curious interpretation of equality, certainly—one that involves exclusion rather than inclusion. Perhaps someone should remind Sir Reginald that this kind of “innovative” thinking once gave the world treasures like Prohibition and the Berlin Wall.
Predictably, the ban sent shockwaves through the sports world. Critics have condemned it as the latest move in an increasingly regulation-obsessed landscape, where sport risks becoming less about athleticism and more about red tape. The IWSF’s grand solution to the complex issue of transgender athletes? Erase them from the equation. It’s a plan so blunt, so elegantly simplistic, one could almost call it medieval. Then again, subtlety doesn’t seem to be in the IWSF’s lexicon—perhaps not surprising for a group that sounds like it was named during a rejected Star Wars script read-through.
Yes, fairness in sports is a conversation worth having. But fairness isn’t served by exclusion. Rather than developing an inclusive, evidence-based policy that respects the rights and dignity of all athletes, the IWSF has taken a page from the 18th-century playbook: ban first, justify later.
