Sex, fairness and the World Athletics regulations: a reply to Bowman-Smart et al.

Abstract

A detailed recent paper in this journal analyses the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF)/World Athletic (WA) regulations on differences in sex development (DSDs), as adopted in 2023. They argue that these regulations unfairly affect female athletes with DSDs. We agree with many of the implications of their argument, if a grounding assumption was true. However, in this reply, we present the clearest counter-argument possible: that this grounding assumption of Bowman-Smart et al. is false, because the athletes concerned are not female, but male.