By KaranPrashant Saxena<\/p>\n
July 19 (Reuters) \u2013 Tennis players will be required to clear a one-time gene test to compete on the women\u2019s tour, the WTA said after updating its eligibility policy on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The \u200bWTA said the once-in-a-lifetime test for the SRY gene, which helps \u200cin determining biological sex, can be conducted via a cheek swab or blood test, with the new policy coming into effect on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The previous\u00a0WTA policy permitted transgender women to participate if they declared their gender as female and then maintained a lowered testosterone \u200clevel \u200bfor a period of two years before competing.<\/p>\n
There \u2060are no known transgender women \u2060currently active at any level of professional tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cEligibility to participate in WTA tournaments will be confirmed through a required, one-time screening process for the SRY gene,\u201d a WTA spokesperson told Reuters.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayer screening will begin in \u200b2026, following all appropriate confidentiality and data privacy safeguards and concurrent with a comprehensive player engagement program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe WTA recognizes that this is a \u2060sensitive and complex issue and is committed \u2060to treating all players with dignity and implementing the policy \u200bin a respectful and thoughtful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Transgender player Renee Richards competed on the women\u2019s \u200bprofessional tour from 1977 to 1981 before coaching tennis great \u200cand gay rights trailblazer Martina Navratilova.<\/p>\n
Navratilova, an 18-time Grand Slam singles champion, has been an outspoken critic of the inclusion of transgender athletes, while world number one Aryna Sabalenka last year said it would be unfair for women \u2060to face transgender players.<\/p>\n
Others, such as Billie Jean King \u2014 the 12-time Grand Slam singles champion who won the original \u201cbattle of the sexes\u201d in 1973 \u2014 see transgender \u2060exclusion as discrimination.<\/p>\n
Several sports \u200cfederations, including World Athletics and World Boxing, have introduced \u2060similar gene tests in recent years.<\/p>\n
In March, the International \u200bOlympic \u200cCommittee said only biological female athletes whose gender has \u200bbeen determined \u2060by a one-time test would be eligible to take part in female category events at the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
Transgender advocacy groups say excluding transgender athletes amounts to discrimination.<\/p>\n
Critics of transgender inclusion say going through male puberty imbues athletes with a musculo-skeletal advantage that transition does not mitigate.<\/p>\n
(Writing by Aadi Nair in Mumbai; Editing \u200bby Kevin Buckland)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By KaranPrashant Saxena July 19 (Reuters) \u2013 Tennis players will be required to clear a one-time gene test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":813501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-813500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=813500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/813501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=813500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=813500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=813500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}