(First of two parts)
A week ago, on Thursday, March 23, World Athletics (WA), the international governing body of athletics, announced through its president, Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe, that Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from competing in track and field events due to the war with Ukraine. Coe also announced that transgender female athletes who have gone through male puberty will also be banned from competition effective tomorrow, March 31.
Coe stated that Russian athletes will remain banned from participating in track and field events “for the foreseeable future,” while transgender women athletes will be banned from competing in female events “to protect female competitions and athletes and promote fairness.”
Russian athletes under the Russian Federation flag have been prohibited from participating in track and field competitions since November 2015 after it had become clear after intensive investigation and testimony that doping in Russian athletics was state-initiated, instigated, and systematically supported. It will be recalled that the expose was later marked by reports of assassinations, mysterious deaths, and so-called suicides of parties involved in and knowledgeable of the subsequent cover up and falsification and fabrication of records. At least one top rated athlete who dared expose the state-sponsored doping fled to the US and sought and was granted asylum by the US State Department.
After 2015, the Russian Athletic Federation (RUSAF) had appealed several times to be reinstated into the 220-plus member WA (previously known as the IAAF or the International Amateur Athletic Federation). All those attempts failed due to non-compliance with certain conditions imposed by the WA. Members of the World Athletics Council were not comfortable with the so-called measures taken and proposed to be implemented by RUSAF to wipe out doping in its system. RUSAF was, however, reinstated as of March 31 but its athletes now cannot compete because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Members, notably allies of Russia, continue to protest the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes “because politics and sports should not be mixed. Athletes train to compete and earn a living. It’s their business to compete. They have nothing to do with what their government does.” Not surprisingly, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seems to agree with the position of the opponents of the ban, stating that it will find a pathway for athletes to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, emphasizing that “no athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport.”
Such a stance of the IOC is consistent with its reputation for being almost totally focused on the commercial aspect of sport to the exclusion of other values. It has even failed to discipline erring and autocratic national Olympic committees, for “fear of rocking the boat.” One only has to recall the IOC position on the disappearance of a Chinese female tennis star at around the time of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2021. Some sports and Olympics stakeholders had called for a boycott of the Winter Games unless the Chinese authorities produced the tennis player. The IOC took the cudgels for the Chinese hosts as it kept its eyes closely glued to the cash register — many multimillion-dollar sponsorship deals could potentially be cancelled because of reputational risks and other issues related to the athlete’s disappearance.
To be sure, one can argue endlessly about “mixing politics with sports” and conveniently set aside the fact that sport has been repeatedly used to make political statements. The mere hosting of a huge event like the Olympics by autocratic regimes is a way of deodorizing the regime and thus converting the hosting into a political statement. The hosting becomes part of its strategic “soft diplomacy” — if the other countries run their governments as we do, treat our citizens as we do, live like we do and practice our values, you will be so successful and rich as to be able to host the Olympics.
What makes the Ukraine war different is the sad and tragic fact that, as reported by Ukrainian pole-vaulting great Sergie Bubka — an athlete who has over the years retained his decent character and concern for the integrity of athletes — almost 200 Ukrainian coaches and national athletes of different ages have perished since the Russian invasion, defending their motherland with courage and honor. One such athlete is decathlete Volodymyr Androshchuk. The 22-year-old athlete’s death was announced on Jan. 25. In 2019, he won the decathlon competition in the Ukrainian U (under) 20 Championship. In 2018, he was a national team member for the European Athletics U18 Championship. In 2020, he represented Ukraine at the European Athletics U20 Championship.
What further adds to the complexity of the situation such that it cannot be reduced simply to a matter of “mixing politics with sports,” is that Russia has been accused of “crimes against humanity” and its highest leader is the subject of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.
THE TRANSGENDER CUNUNDRUMThe ban on transgender women however triggered more voices of protest and support from all over the world from athletes, LGBTQs, the trans community, human rights activists, and all others who felt compelled to weigh in.
Such decisions understandably will not make everyone happy. As Coe said, “Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations. We believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount.”
Coe, who boldly and courageously undertook radical integrity and governance reforms when he took over the then IAAF in 2015, is not one who will turn his back on controversial issues especially those impacting fairness and integrity. It is not at all surprising that the WA made a tough decision on transgender athletes during his presidency.
These competing interests and rights include, aside from fairness and leveling the playing field, the noble notion of inclusivity and safety especially in sports where physical contact is unavoidable and even encouraged. A transgender female may, based on some medical studies, retain the superior male physical features of strength, endurance, etc. despite testosterone suppression, the medical wisdom of which is itself being challenged as harmful in the long term.
The issue of transgender athletes is a complicated one and we intend to deal with it in what we hope will be in a more comprehensive manner in next week’s column.
We end this week’s piece by quoting The Guardian: “Sports have been increasingly wrestling with the thorny issue of transgender participation in recent years notably when New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard qualified for the Tokyo Olympics having transitioned in her 30s.”
(To be continued.)
Philip Ella Juico’s areas of interest include the protection and promotion of democracy, free markets, sustainable development, social responsibility and sports as a tool for social development. He obtained his doctorate in business at De La Salle University. Dr. Juico served as secretary of Agrarian Reform during the Corazon C. Aquino administration.
