USOPC pushes category qualifiers for sport transgender issue

By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee is encouraging individual sports to consider “category qualifiers” to ensure transgender athletes will have events to participate in after they reach puberty. The USOPC finalized its so-called position paper addressing a proposed path forward for transgender participation in sports. Its recommendations were based on the principles that science and “fairness” should guide all major decisions. The federation said category qualifiers are used in several sports, including wrestling and boxing, and a so-called open category could be used in some sports. Such a category could include male, transgender and nonbinary athletes who were male at birth. It would leave a category exclusively for athletes who were female at birth.