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The transgender World Cup swimming category has been cancelled after no entries were received.
Transgender women were banned last year from competing in elite female sports event and World Aquatics announced a new category for athletes whose gender identity is different from their birth sex.
The Open category was introduced to help make sports fairer.
The swimming World Cup, due to begin in Berlin this Friday, Oct. 6, introduced new rules for trans swimmers last year banning biological males competing in the women’s category unless they had completed their transition by age 12 and their testosterone was below a certain threshold.
In protest to the rule, trans swimmers are demanding to continue competing against women and they refused to enter for the open category that would see them compete against fellow trans.
However, World Aquatics on Tuesday, Oct. 3, announced that no trans swimmers had entered the events, forcing them to rethink their policy for elite meetings.
“Following the close of registration for the open category competitions, World Aquatics can confirm that no entries have been received for the Open Category events,” they said in a statement.
“The World Aquatics open category working group will continue its work and engagement with the aquatics community on open category events. Even if there is no current demand at the elite level, the working group is planning to look at the possibility of including open category races at masters events in the future.”
World Aquatics changed their policy last year in the wake of the row involving American Lia Thomas, who became the first known transgender swimmer to win the highest US national college title.
Other sports such as athletics and cycling followed swimming in blocking transgender women from competing in the female category, but World Aquatics are the first to try to organise a third category separate from men’s and women’s events.
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