Welcome to Strong Girl Talk, where we dive into the latest in sports science, performance, and well-being—all with a focus on women and girls in sport. We’re calling this an emergency episode, it’s not our usual Friday episode, but this issue was too important for us not to talk about. This episode focuses on recently announced sex testing for eligibility in the female category to compete at the World Athletics World Championships following a press conference, and then this press release. This was first mentioned as a possibility in a press release on February 10th.

Whether you’re an athlete (at any level), parent of an athlete, a coach, or involved in sport in any capacity, this episode is one you need to listen to to understand what’s happening in the world of women’s sport today. We dig into the history of sex testing, the nuances of sex biology, the differences between referencing gender and sex, DSD (difference of sex development) athletes, as well as transgender athletes, how these tests impact all women athletes, the ‘trickle down effect’ that policies have on community sport and sport at young ages, and so much more.

As always, we want this discussion to be couched in love, humanity and kindness.

The current World Athletics Policies:

* World Athletics Eligibility Regulations for the Female Classification (Athletes with Differences of Sexual Development and the Eligibility Regulations for Transgender Athletes. (Note: We expect to see an update in the near future and will update these notes).

* Historical Documents: i) The 2011 Hyperandrogenism Policy, ii) The 2018 DSD Policy, iii) Following the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Case WA (then the IAAF) provided briefing notes, iv) The 2019 DSD Policy and The 2019 Transgender Policy,

Here are the federations we referred to:

* World Rugby’s Transgender Guidelines - Reference Documents

* World Aquatics Policy on Eligibility for the Men’s and Women’s Competition Category

* The UCI has a section on their website for Transgender Athletes - Eligibility Rules for Transgender Athletes

* Chris Mosier’s TransAthlete Policy List

* The IOC Framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variation

* The WADA Code - Section 23.2.2 - see page 146 for footnote 115 (last line bottom right). There is also this FAQ about Testing for Transgender and Non-binary athletes.

* The Australian Rules Football Leagues Gender Inclusion Policies - The Community Guidelines and the Elite Guidelines.

These are some of the books referred to in this episode:

* Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates by Katie Barnes

* Sporting Gender: The History, Science, And Stories Of Transgender And Intersex Athletes by Joanna Harper, there is also this shorter piece on Athletic Gender

And any other resources we mention:

* The Gender Unicorn

* You Can Play - A Canadian organization helping everyone play

* This article Molly wrote on Bicycling.com about Chelsea Wolfe

* The Athletics Integrity Unit - this is the list of currently banned athletes

Other resources not mentioned:

* Sasha co-authored this piece in the summer, Fair and Safe Eligibility Criteria for Women's Sport: The Proposed Testing Regime Is Not Justified, Ethical, or Viable, in response to an editorial from Ross Tucker et al.

* Sasha also has a preprint posted, Running Like a Girl: Athletics Performance of Women Whose Eligibility is Subject to World Athletics DSD Regulations, looking at a comparison of women with natural variations in their testosterone to male performances from Paris 202.

* Tested A podcast series in advance of the 2024 Olympics - this Scientific America write up of an interview is a good summary

* An 2010 Article by Ross Tucker and Colin Murray on the science of sex verification and athletic performance - The science of sex verification and athletic performance in the International Journal of Physiology and Performance

* Marcus Mazzucco and Jensen Brehaut’s International Sports Law Journal Article - The use of doping control data to administer sex-based eligibility regulations: an analysis of how the World Anti-Doping Agency and international sport federations violate data protection laws

* Biology and Management of Male-Bodied Athletes in Elite Female Sports in Drug Testing and Analysis by David J. Handelsman and Stéphane Bermon.

* Sex, drugs and science: the IOC’s and IAAF’s attempts to control fairness in sport in Sport and Society by Jörg Krieger, Lindsay Parks Pieper, & Ian Ritchie.

Remember you can follow Molly and Sasha on Social Media including:

Molly - @mollyjhurford @stronggirlpublishing Sasha - @SGollishRuns @Yellow_Running_Shoes

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