Women swimmers will not have to compete against transgender competitors in licensed events under new rules from Swim England.

The sport’s governing body has introduced an ‘open’ category for those born male as well as trans or non-binary competitors, while a ‘female’ category will be restricted to those with a birth sex of female. …

The policy contains provision for self-identification at lower-level events such as recreational races.

[It took this long for a sports authority to figure out the obvious solution, eh? Now that Swim England has created the ‘open’ category, though, I suspect it won’t get much use. It won’t have the same opportunity to undermine and marginalize women in sports competitions. — Ed]