USA Swimming issues new policy on elite transgender athletes

By Ben Church, CNN

Updated 1516 GMT (2316 HKT) February 2, 2022

USA Swimming issued its new policy in a statement on Tuesday.

(CNN)The governing body for competitive swimming in the US issued a new policy on Tuesday regarding transgender athletes wanting to compete in elite events.

Effective immediately, USA Swimming said a three-person panel of independent medical experts will now decide whether «prior physical development of the athlete as a male» will give an unfair advantage over cisgender females.The panel will also check that testosterone levels have been less than five nanomoles per liter for at least 36 months prior.«USA Swimming has and will continue to champion gender equity and the inclusivity of all cisgender and transgender women and their rights to participate in sport, while also fervently supporting competitive equity at elite levels of competition,» read a statement on Tuesday.«The development of the elite policy therefore acknowledges a competitive difference in the male and female categories and the disadvantages this presents in elite head-to-head competition.»Read MoreIt comes as University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, who is transgender, has been smashing records at college events.She had previously competed on the men's swimming team at Penn and underwent two years of hormone therapy.During the preliminary rounds of the Zippy Invitational event last year, Thomas set a new pool and meet record in the 500-yard freestyle.She then went more than 12 seconds faster in the final to set a new program record.READ: Running as equals, the elite athletes fighting for acceptanceLia Thomas during a warmup before an NCAA college swimming meet in January 2022. During a June interview with the student