Authors: Alex and Luci, transgender people

Although transgender people have been openly participating in sports for decades, trans athletes – particularly trans women and girls – have faced a significant portion of criticism in recent years.

This strange focus on trans-identified people, who comprise roughly 1% of the world population, has recently taken center stage, with the amount of anti-trans bills passed increasing considerably in 2025.

Here are a few notable transgender athletes, as well as their accomplishments:

Laurel Hubbard

At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Hubbard participated in the women’s super-heavyweight 87-kilogram weightlifting division, but she failed all three of her lifts. 

In addition to being the oldest lifter at the Games, she also made history by being the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Olympics.

Kye Allums

Kye became one of the first openly transgender NCAA Division I college athletes after coming out in 2010. Now an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, Allums visits colleges and high schools to speak about the transgender community and offer guidance on dealing with bullies.

In 2015, he received an induction into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.

Fallon Fox

She is the first mixed martial arts competitor who is openly transgender. Fox was widely questioned about whether she was properly licensed to compete against other women after coming out in 2013.

Between 2012 and 2014, Fox won five of her six professional mixed martial arts fights. In 2014, she was admitted into the National Gay and Lesbian Sports Hall of Fame.

Tifanny Abreu

The first transgender player to compete in Brazil’s top volleyball league, the Brazil Superliga, she received clearance to play as a woman in 2017.

“My greatest legacy is not to reach an Olympics, but to open paths for new trans athletes in the near future. My wish is that, more and more, confederations start to see us not as trans people, but as athletes.”

Quinn

Quinn is a transgender, non-binary athlete who plays for the Canadian women’s national soccer team. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, they helped the Canadian women’s team in winning the gold medal.

As a result, they became the first transgender, non-binary athlete to earn an Olympic champion title.

According to a 2021 study that was published in the Journal Sports Medicine, legislators’ attempts to outlaw transgender women from participating in sports are not supported by any scientific data.

In November 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released its Framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations. This framework was developed after a two-year consultation process with over 250 athletes and stakeholders.

Some of the most common myths regarding transgender women in sports are the following:

  • transgender women have a physical advantage over cisgender women;
  • if allowed to compete, transgender women will dominate women’s sports;
  • transgender women will take away opportunities from cisgender athletes.

More recently, a 2024 study that was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and partially funded by the IOC came to the conclusion that transgender female athletes might actually face a number of physical disadvantages when competing against cisgender women.

Here are some of the main conclusions of the study:

  • transgender women performed worse than cisgender women in tests measuring lower-body strength;
  • transgender women performed worse than cisgender women in tests measuring lung function;
  • transgender women had a higher percentage of fat mass, lower fat-free mass, and weaker handgrip strength compared to cisgender men;
  • transgender women’s bone density was found to be equivalent to that of cisgender women, which is linked to muscle strength;
  • there were no meaningful differences found between the two groups’ hemoglobin profiles (a key factor in athletic performance).

Despite all of this evidence, some policymakers still use trans women athletes as scapegoats, putting their own political narratives ahead of the facts. 

Unfortunately, in reality these attacks on trans athletes put all women in danger by fostering a climate of fear, promoting unfounded accusations, and setting the stage for intrusive and discriminatory screenings that allow for abuse.

Policymakers, the media, as well as other athletes, have accused a number of cisgender athletes of being transgender. Transphobia is still used as a weapon against cisgender women, particularly women of color, who are subjected to mockery, unfounded allegations, and intrusive medical testing. Because they don’t fit the ideal, some of these cisgender women are even prohibited from competing.

One of the better-known cases in recent years was that of Imane Khelif, a cisgender Algerian professional female boxer. In 2023, she was disqualified from the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships for unspecified medical reasons relating to her gender. 

After competing against Italian boxer Angela Carini in the 2024 Olympics, Imane was falsely accused of being transgender, despite being cleared by the International Olympic Federation to compete.

This has sparked debates on various platforms, and from different celebrities and influencers, the most controversial of which being Elon Musk, Donald Trump and J.K. Rowling’s statements:

J.K. Rowling on X (Twitter)
Donald J. Trump on X (Twitter)
Elon Musk on X (Twitter)

Khelif went on to file a harassment lawsuit against Rowling and Musk.

At the 2020 Olympics six African runners: Christine Mboma, Beatrice Masilingi, Aminatou Seyni, Caster Semenya, Margaret Wambui, and Francine Niyonsaba, –  were all withdrawn from their events because they did not meet the eligibility regulations due to their naturally occurring testosterone levels and appearance.

Children are also being affected by the “trans panic” surrounding women’s sports. In 2021, Florida passed a law allowing schools to perform genital examinations on minors and prohibiting transgender children from participating in sports that correspond with their gender. Several other US states have followed in Florida’s footsteps since.

This is just one of the many cases where transphobia has been proven to harm various categories of people, including not only transgender, but also cisgender women that “failed” to meet the rigid and discriminatory criteria enforced by the policymakers on what it means to be considered “valid” as a woman.

These “eligibility regulations” completely fail to acknowledge the fact that human bodies are diverse, anatomically and physically unique regardless of whether the person is cis or trans. As a result, said attempts at “protecting” cis women in sports end up causing more harm, resulting in unfair disqualifications and intrusive evaluation methods.