Swedish gymnastics lets youths decide gender category

FILE – Azerbaijan gymnastic team competes in the final 5 balls event during the 36th European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Kiev on November 28, 2020. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)

The Swedish Gymnastics Federation said Monday it would let teenagers decide for themselves in which gender they wished to participate in the sport, for both practice and competitions.

The decision was reached after the federation had done a “deep-dive in the issue around gender identity and gender expression” over the summer, the organization said.

“Specifically, for our training and competition activities the decision means that you are welcome to train in whatever group you yourself choose no matter your legal gender, gender identity or expression,” the federation said in a statement.

Transgender teenagers would also be free to compete in the class of their own choosing, up to the junior national level, which falls between 13 and 18 years old depending on the discipline.

Speaking to daily Dagens Nyheter, the organization said the new rules would not apply to senior athletes as they would need to adapt to international rules.

The gymnastics federation is the first national sports body to heed a call from the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights (RFSL), which in October issued a report on transgender people in sports, focusing on children and young people.

According to RFSL, transgender youths felt excluded in many sports and the rights group said other sports bodies were preparing to adopt new guidelines to be more “inclusive,” including the football association and skating association.

The gymnastics federation said the issue had been on the agenda for a while but also added that there hadn’t been many inquiries from individuals or groups, which was “one of the reason the issue had been in focus.”

“The reason we haven’t received many questions about this is probably because we have had a system/structure that has led to individuals choosing to quit early as they haven’t felt that there is room for them and therefore the issue never even reached us,” Pelle Malmborg, secretary general of the federation, said in a statement.