Sebastian Coe’s Vision: Could Transgender Policies Reshape the Olympics?

Today, the preparing the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for a change in leadership; one candidate to consider for chairman post is Sebastian Coe. Coe is a famous British athlete, who became the winner of 1500m race at the Summer Olympics, held in Moscow in 1980 and in Los Angeles in 1984. Apart from sports, Coe is a member of Parliament and played a role in the organization of the London Olympics .

Presently, Papa Massata Coe holds the World Athletics presidency; the organization that famously banned transgender athletes from the women categories. As per the news, Coe has said he is ready to adopt the same policy at Olympics if he is the next IOC president.

He said: “If I take on this role, perhaps there will be a need to have a policy as clear and definitive as that being addressed by World Athletics.” “It has been very clear that Transgender athletes will not be allowed to participate in female category of elite competitions.”

Though Coe did not elaborate on how exactly such policy would work he did stress that decisions should be fair and transparent. He emphasised that female elite athletes should be allowed to achieve his or her dreams of representing a country yet, without coming across biased obstacles.

It will be taken positively by many especially those who oppose the bending of the rules concerning woman athletes. However, Coe is likely to face resistance from the progressive forces who continue to be agitated for better policies on the Diaspora issue.

In this emerging debate on gender self-identification participation in athletics, Coe’s emerging leadership presents tremendous implications on how the Olympics will handle this grey policy area.