Australian Olympic champion Ian Thorpe has criticised the international swimming body FINA’s decision to bar male-to-female transgender athletes from elite female competitions.
The athlete, who previously advocated for same-sex marriage in Australia, said it was a “very complicated issue” and that he was “personally opposed to the position FINA has taken on this.”
“I am for fairness in sport, but I’m also for equality in sport. And in this instance, they’ve actually got it wrong,” he told reporters.
Thorpe, who won five gold medals at the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games, argued that it’s “highly unlikely” that someone who’s gone through gender-reassignment surgeries would “ever be able to win an Olympic gold medal.”“When it comes to the elite level, there needs to be a sensible conversation which includes endocrinologists, psychologists, physiologists—everyone that actually may have an opinion in this space.”
