Association of Ringside Physicians Issue Statement About Transgender Athletes Competing in Combat Sports
The Association of Ringside Physicians issued a statement last month suggesting that transgender athletes should not be allowed compete in combat sports against cisgender athletes.
The paper was presented by the following:
AUTHORS: Randa Bascharon, DO, MBA, ATC, FAOAO; Nitin K Sethi, MD, MBBS, FAAN; Ryan F. Estevez, MD, PhD, MPH; Mark Gordon MD, CWS, FACS; Carlo Guevara, MD, DDS, FACS; Eric Twohey, MD; Kevin deWeber, MD, FAMSSM, FAAFP, FACSM
APPROVING DIRECTORS: Dr. John Neidecker (President), Dr. Louis Durkin (Vice President), Dr. Nitin Sethi (Secretary), Dr. Edward Amores (Treasurer), Dr. Don Muzzi (Past President), Dr. Kevin deWeber, Dr. Junaid Munshi, Dr. Warren Wang, Dr. Randa Bascharon, Dr. Guillem Gonzalez-Lomas, Dr. Damon Zavala, Dr. Andrea Hill, Dr. Carlo Guevara.
The introductory statement reads as follows:
The Association of Ringside Physicians (ARP) is committed to the concept of fair competition. It advocates for two equally skilled and matched athletes to keep bouts fair, competitive, entertaining, and, most importantly, safe for all combatants. Numerous studies have proven that transgender women may have a competitive athletic advantage against otherwise matched cisgender women. Likewise, transgender men may have a competitive disadvantage against cisgender men. These differences—both anatomic and physiologic–persist despite normalization of sex hormone levels and create disparities in competitive abilities that are not compatible with the spirit of fair competition. More importantly, allowing transgender athletes to compete against cisgender athletes in combat sports, which already involve significant risk of serious injury, unnecessarily raises the risk of injury due to these differences. Hence, the ARP does not currently support transgender athlete competition against cisgender athletes in combat sports.
The full paper can be viewed at:
https://ringsidearp.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Transgender_PP1.pdf