IPC president Andrew Parsons says particular person sports activities ought to resolve transgender coverage
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Worldwide sport governing our bodies ought to set their very own insurance policies on transgender athletes, says Worldwide Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons.
Italian Valentina Petrillo final week grew to become the primary brazenly transgender athlete to win a medal at a world Para-athletics occasion.
The 49-year-old, who was born with a visible impairment, was born male however transitioned in 2019.
She received bronze within the T12 400m on the Para Athletics World Championships in Paris on Thursday and set a 200m private greatest in Sunday’s heats.
Below World Para Athletics’ guidelines, an individual who’s legally recognised as a girl is eligible to compete within the class their impairment qualifies them for.
Parsons mentioned the IPC just isn’t contemplating a ruling throughout all Paralympic sports activities.
“The definition of who’s eligible to compete in a feminine occasion or not is as much as every worldwide governing physique,” he instructed BBC Sport.
In March World Athletics after which UK Athletics (UKA) banned transgender women from competing in feminine classes at worldwide and nationwide degree respectively.
UKA mentioned athletics ought to “stay an inclusive sport” however it’s “truthful” that athletes who’ve gone via male puberty needs to be excluded from the feminine class.
Parsons mentioned: “From an IPC perspective, we allowed particular person sports activities to make their guidelines when it comes to transgender. So these guidelines will be totally different from sport to sport.
“Some are coming with totally different positions on transgender, or with the factors to permit them or to not permit them, so I am not stunned by the repercussions of it.”
Some Para-sports equivalent to biking and rowing are run by the identical governing physique as their Olympic counterparts, however many are impartial.
Final week the UCI, world biking’s governing physique, dominated that transgender ladies could not compete in female events.
The UCI mentioned anybody who transitioned after male puberty might compete in a ‘males/open’ class.
There was criticism of Petrillo’s participation in Paris, however Parsons mentioned the IPC was conscious the difficulty of transgender athletes collaborating in top-level Para sport would come up sooner or later.
“We at all times knew it was not a matter of if; it is a matter of when,” he mentioned.
“Nonetheless, we’re monitoring what is occurring on this planet of sport normally and new analysis, as a result of this can be a actuality of sport today. Science must be the guideline.
“The transgender inhabitants is rising and they’re right here to remain. We’ve to ensure we give them sporting alternatives, but in addition shield feminine athletes.”
