The new Berline World Cup category, which was introduced by the World Aquatics, has been canceled because it received no entries.
This was confirmed by the international sports organization on Tuesday, Oct. 3. Here are the major details shared by the World Aquatics.
New Berlin World Cup Category for Trans Athletes Receives No Entries
Via its official website, the World Aquatics confirmed that the Swimming World Cup in Berlin will no longer include the Open Category competitions.
The sports organization said that after they closed the registration, officials said that no entries had been received for the Open Category events.
According to The Guardian's latest report, the Open Category initiative was introduced by World Aquatics after it voted to ban transgender women from the elite female category in 2022.
After that, officials promised that they would stage a pioneering pilot project to ensure its "unwavering commitment" to inclusivity by allowing athletes of all sexes and gender identities to join their international sports competitions.
Originally, World Aquatics was planning to include the Open Category with 50m and 100m races across all strokes alongside its men's and women's competition.
Although this is the case, the sports agency doesn't plan to completely remove the new Open Category.
"The World Aquatics Open Category Working Group will continue its work and engagement with the aquatics community on Open Category events," said the organization.
"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," added the World Aquatics.
Why World Aquatics Introduced Open Category
General view during day one of the FINA Diving World Cup Berlin at Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europasportpark (SSE) on October 21, 2022, in Berlin, Germany.
The World Aquatics only worked on the Open Category since it was against transgender women—who had undergone male puberty—entering elite female competitions.
This is because numerous studies revealed that trans athletes tend to have a significant advantage over female swimmers even after reducing their testosterone levels through medication.
Aside from this, another factor that influenced the World Aquatics to vote against trans professional swimmers is Lia Thomas; an American swimmer who wasn't able to win an NCAA national college title in the women's category after becoming a transgender.
For the past 12 months, the World Aquatics and other international sports bodies have been facing the same issue over trans athletes.
However, World Aquatics is the first major Olympic sports organization to offer a third category of competition separate from the women's and men's events.
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