USA Boxing has issued its new ‘Transgender Policy’ which will allow male athletes who transition gender to compete in female division. These fresh rules will be adopted in 2024 and replace a previous set of regulations which were put in place back in 2022.
The governing body – which oversees amateur and Olympic-style boxing in America – has now adopted this new set of regulations into its rulebook for the upcoming year. This comes after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ruled that all sports and governing bodies would be able to make their own regulations in this regard.
To compete in bouts, the boxers in question must now satisfy a series of qualifying criteria set by the USA Boxing rulemakers. To take part in the female division, the said athlete must declare their gender identity as female, while having completed gender reassignment surgery – while also having undergone hormone testing for over at least four years following this.
The new rules now also stipulate that boxers who undergo transition must have a total testosterone level in serum that is below 5 nmol/L for a minumum of two years before they can compete in the female category. The previous rule, ratified in 2022, determined that an athlete’s total testosterone level in serum must remain below 5 nmol/L during the period of desired eligibility to fight.
Furthermore, any boxers wishing to compete in the male categories must demonstrate a total testosterone level in excess of 10 nmol/L for two years before a fight, while at least maintaining these levels while their eligibility period is ongoing. These rules are only in place with competitors over the age of 18.
Anyone under that age can switch to the category in line with their gender identity once they reach that age, as per the new regulations. A spokesperson for USA Boxing stated that they had resolved to settle upon a policy which provides ‘fairness and safety for all boxers.’
They went on to state: “USA Boxing has determined this policy based on the November 2021 International Olympic Committee (IOC) Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations, which remits each sport and its governing body to determine how an athlete may be at a disproportionate advantage compared with their peers, taking into consideration the nature of each sport.”
This comes after the WBC outlined its own guidelines in terms of transgender competitors back in August. They committed to ‘firmly and unequivocally’ supporting transgender rights, while adding that they seek to recognise ‘the gender identity of an individual athlete’.
They added: “There is no consensus whether a bout between a transgender woman against a cisgender (biological) woman is a fair bout between two equally matched competitors.”
Moreover, the WBC’s president Mauricio Sulaiman also announced plans for a new category which would enable transgender boxers to fight against each other. He told the Telegraph: “We are creating a set of rules and structures so that transgender boxing can take place, as they fully deserve to if they want to box.”