Let women compete with women in sports, says a top UN official

Sports competitions for women should remain exclusively for athletes whose biological sex is female, and men pretending to be women should be sniffed out with screening methods such as cheek swabs, a top UN official has recommended.

When women compete with men, they endure serious injuries, including knocked-out teeth, concussions resulting in neural impairment, broken legs and skull fractures, Reem Alsalem, the Special Rapporteur of the UN on violence against women and girls, said in a report released this week. Scientific research indicates that males possess certain performance advantages in sports.

One study highlights that even in non-elite competition, "the least powerful man generated more power than the most powerful woman." It also notes that when men and women have similar fitness levels, males' average punching power is measured to be 162 percent higher than that of females.

Mixed-sex categories in sports have resulted in female athletes losing medals, it said.

“By 30 March 2024, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports.”

Transgenders can compete with each other in a separate category, and then they have every right to refuse to undergo invasive testing or testosterone suppression to participate, says Alsalem.

“Their (Women’s) ability to play sport in conditions of safety, dignity and fairness has been further eroded by the intrusion of males who identify as female in female-only sports and related spaces,” she said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“Male athletes have specific attributes considered advantageous in certain sports, such as strength and testosterone levels that are higher than those of the average range for females, even before puberty, thereby resulting in the loss of fair opportunity,” the report said.

Some sports federations ask men to suppress their testosterone to compete with women in elite sports.

But the report notes: “However, pharmaceutical testosterone suppression for genetically male athletes – irrespective of how they identify – will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired.”

“To avoid the loss of a fair opportunity, males must not compete in the female categories of sport,” it added.

Women and girls already have many odds stacked against them that impede their equal and effective participation in sports, said Alsalem.

The report also details structural causes of violence against women and girls in sports, including male-dominated cultures and the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles.