FINA's decision will have a far greater ripple effect than on the Olympic lanes, says transgender athlete Hannah Mouncey - and already another sporting code has followed suit.
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Swimming Australia has thrown its support behind the world swimming body's new gender policy preventing intersex and transwomen from competing in women's FINA-sanctioned events if they experienced male puberty beyond age 12.
FINA promised instead to create a new "open" category, and assured the policy was implemented for "fairness" at the elite level.
Although it is not mandatory for national bodies, or community sport, to follow suit, it seems Swimming Australia may implement a similar policy - despite confirming it was not aware of any transgender athletes competing at an elite level domestically.
"Swimming Australia endorses a competitive environment that is fair and equitable for all athletes at the high-performance level, and we believe this new policy reflects that position," a spokesperson said.
"Work will now continue on our domestic policy to provide guidance to our broad swimming family at the community level."
Less than 48 hours after FINA's new policy, another code followed suit.
International Rugby League banned transgender women from international matches until "further research is completed" to create its own policy.
The pair followed World Rugby, which already had a policy in place banning transwomen from the women's game if they transitioned after puberty.
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Australian swimmers Cate Campbell and Emily Seebohm threw their support behind FINA's decision on "fairness" grounds, but Olympic silver medallist Madeline Groves slammed the move - as did Pride2Play, an Australian charity supporting LGBTQIA+ inclusion in sport.
Mouncey confirmed she had offered to share her story with Australian swimmers, because "people are scared of what they don't understand", during the federal election when the topic was raised.
Although she claimed none had taken up her offer, the Canberran said it was still on the table.
As Mouncey warned the ramifications of the decision would be felt across all levels or sport, and other codes.
"It opens people up to an awful lot of abuse. If I'm a community-level swimmer and I'm trans, I don't want anything to do with that sport because it's totally alienating," she said.
"People are going to turn around at community level and go, 'Well if they're not allowed to compete internationally, why are they allowed to compete here?'
"There isn't many trans people playing sport, and there won't be any going forward - because why would you subject yourself to this?
"I don't know why I subject myself to this."
Mouncey reiterated restrictions were needed at an elite level for all athletes' safety, but said research was being ignored.
US research in 2020 found transwomen had lost most of the benefits of testosterone after two years on estrogen.
"It's another example of sporting organisations picking and choosing how they use research," she said.
"They don't want trans people competing. The research is there, but people are just choosing to apply it in ways that best suits themselves, and that's the problem."
The AIS and Sports Australia did not have data on how many transgender, non-binary, intersex or other gender-diverse athletes were competing in Australia.
Mouncey is one of only a handful of transgender athletes to compete at the elite level in recent times, alongside Canadian soccer player Quinn, and New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard.