World Aquatics cancels Swimming World Cup open category competitions after failing to attract entrants

World Aquatics, the international governing body of water sports, has announced the cancelation of debut events in its open category for self-identified transgender swimmers at the Swimming World Cup in the German city of Berlin after no competitors registered.

With the Swimming World Cup starting as of today, World Aquatics had planned to include a new open category division in the 50-metre and 100-metre races of all strokes that would welcome competitors of either sex who identified as transgender.

The governing body announced the creation of the categories last month having last year effectively banned transgender women from competing in its women's events.

However, late yesterday World Aquatics advised “following the close of registration for the Open Category … World Aquatics can confirm that no entries have been received for the Open Category events.”

In June 2022 World Aquatics announced “classifying athletes on the basis of sex is necessary to meet World Aquatics’ goals for female Aquatics athletes and the women’s competition category.

“World Aquatics’ eligibility standards for the women’s category are narrowly tailored so that they can achieve those goals without unnecessarily limiting participation by gender-diverse athletes.”

In November 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved new guidelines which granted increased flexibility to International Federations to set their own policy.

The Swimming World Cup runs from 6th to 8th October.