Openly trans athletes make their Olympic debut, but the rules could change very soon

Chelsea Wolfe couldn't imagine her life without riding her bike.

The BMX star began competing when she was just six years old, but not everything came so easily.

"I definitely knew that I was struggling with gender dysphoria from my earliest memories as a kid," she told the ABC's The Signal podcast.

"Coming out is never just a one-and-done thing, like it happened on this day and it's over.

"It's a constant process, really.

"There were people who I came out to at an extremely young age, like close friends of mine. And then it wasn't until years later that I kind of was at a point where I didn't have to fear who I ran into."

Wolfe is one of the best freestyle BMX riders in the world and this year realised a dream by making the cut for Team USA for the Tokyo Olympics, the first year that the sport has been included in the games.

Wolfe was selected as an alternate, meaning she made the team but would only compete at the games if two other Team USA athletes were unable to compete in Tokyo.

Competing in the sport she loves has meant reckoning with the shifting rules for the inclusion of trans women in elite sport.

"The thing is, these organisations that are creating the rules for when, where and how trans people are allowed to compete in sports, those boards are mostly made up, if not entirely made up of cis-people."

"It's just really hard to see that kind of thing being done to kids who are just like I was when I was their age, just trying to exist and play sports with their friends and then having that taken from them by people who are just scared and don't know what they're doing."

What are the rules?

Elite transgender athletes the world over will be holding their breath come the end of the Tokyo Olympics.

On one hand, the 2021 Games represent significant progress for the trans community — New Zealander Laurel Hubbard will become the first openly trans athlete to compete in the Olympics when she takes part in the women's +87kg weightlifting event.

Her inclusion has drawn at least as much fire as it has support and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is in the midst of reviewing its policy on trans participation.

It has promised a major announcement about the rules for trans inclusion once the Tokyo Games are over.

The announcement was initially due before the Olympics but has been postponed.

Some commentators have speculated that transgender access to the Olympics will be at least maintained if not expanded, but trans athletes themselves are less sure.

"You know technically they can just say 'nope, sorry, no trans women allowed ever', there are sports that do that," said Wolfe.

Until 2004, trans people were banned from the Olympics altogether but the IOC changed the rules so they could participate under three strict conditions.

First, athletes had to have undergone sex reassignment surgery, including changes in the external genitalia. 

Second, athletes had to have received legal recognition for their gender, and third, they had to have been on hormone therapy for two years.

But the trans community campaigned for change and the IOC signed on to a human rights charter.

In 2015, the IOC changed the rules again, citing concerns their stance insisting on surgery was inconsistent with human rights principles.

The new guidelines require only that trans women declare their gender and not change that assertion for four years, as well as demonstrate a testosterone level of less than 10 nanomoles per litre for at least one year prior to competition and throughout the period of eligibility.

Athletes who have transitioned from female to male can compete without restriction.

The new, less-restrictive guidelines were in effect for the 2016 Rio Olympics, although no openly transgender athletes competed.

Ms Hubbard will become the first this year.

IOC president Thomas Bach has backed her selection, saying that under the current rules she can compete.

"The rules are in place and the rules have to be applied. You cannot change the rules during an ongoing competition."

He added that those standards are still under review.

"At the same time, the IOC is in an inquiry phase with all the relative stakeholders — medical experts, social experts, human rights experts and of course also international federations — to review these rules."

What the rules mean for amateur athletes

Decisions made at an IOC level have a direct impact on only a small number of transgender people but the indirect effect is much broader.

Global sports bodies are encouraged by the IOC to adopt their guidelines for participation, and the rules then trickle down to national bodies, which govern participation at a local level.

Even so, not all sports have followed the IOC's lead on this question so far.

The AFL and World Rugby are two such examples.

In 2017, World Rugby banned trans women from participating in the sport at a global competitive level.

It released a statement at the time, citing what it called "the best available evidence", that safety and fairness for cis women competing against trans women could not be assured.

It concluded there was a minimum 20 to 30 per cent increase in injury risk factors during tackles involving typical male-bodied and female-bodied players, even when accounting for suppressed levels of testosterone in trans women.

The decision still left room for national bodies to make their own call on participation and many national bodies have remained in step with the IOC, including Rugby USA.

Grace McKenzie, who competes at a community level in San Francisco, California, said that about a year after she came out as trans, she was approached in a bar by another woman who invited her to join a team.

"I told them, 'just so you know, I'm a trans woman, I don't think I'm allowed to play on your sports team', and they were like 'honestly we don't care, it's women's rugby, if you're crazy enough to try this, we're going to take anybody."

Ms McKenzie said she was terrified she would be ostracised, but her fears were unfounded.

"I actually scored a try in my first game … I chugged [from] the boot at the end of the game, and fell in love 100 per cent," she said.

The game changed for her after the World Rugby decision.

"It makes me feel much less welcome, it makes me feel much more anxious.

"It definitely has put a dampener on what was an extremely safe and supportive space for me.

"But I'm much more worried about the next generation of athletes who are going to see these rulings and not even try the sport and not even be a part of this amazing community," says Grace.

"And that's really heartbreaking to me because I can honestly say rugby probably saved my life.

"All I can wish is that that stays available to other people who are going to come after me."