Letters | Be inclusive and give transgender athletes like swimmer Lia Thomas their trophy – in a separate category
- Readers suggest that transgender sporting achievements be in a class of their own and criticise the abrasive US overture towards China on Russia
A transgender athlete should win a medal based on her actual finish. However, the top three cisgender women in an event should receive gold, silver and bronze medals regardless of whether one or more trans women finished ahead of them.
A relay team with a trans woman should be treated in the same way. In one-on-one events such as tennis, a repêchage system should be developed so that if a cisgender woman is defeated by a trans woman, she can continue in the competition against other cisgender women.
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New Zealand’s first openly transgender Olympian competes in Tokyo Games
Potentially there could be two gold medals, one for an undefeated athlete and one for a cisgender athlete undefeated by other cisgender women. All medals of a given colour should have the same weight in determining a team’s standing.
Having multiple medals in the same event based on a physical difference is no more unusual than having multiple medals for different weight classes in boxing or weightlifting.