Halba Diouf, transgender athlete, should be able to participate in competitions up to the departmental level

Halba Diouf should be able to tread the tartan in competition this summer. The 21-year-old athlete, a transgender woman, had been in the dark for several weeks as to what to do with her practice of athletics.

Indeed, this winter, while the sprinter was one of the best athletes in the territory, she was withdrawn from the lists of the French U23 and Elite Championships by the French Athletics Federation (FFA), the latter asking, as imposed on the the rule of World Athletics (WA), to be able to check the biological follow-up of the athlete concerned to know if she had a lower testosterone level of 5 nmol / l for a year.

This was the case but, since March 23, the international rule has changed, WA prohibiting from competitions transgender women who have experienced male puberty (provisional decision adjustable by WA in one year). “Shocked” as she told us in a long interview for L’Équipe magazine, Halba Diouf was planning to fight to keep running.

According to our information, this should be the case. Very involved in the follow-up of the dossier since the performances achieved by Diouf during the Indoor Regionals of Miramas (7”36 over 60 m and 23”45 over 200 m, on January 28 and 29), the FFA has just created a commission for transgender athletes, including several doctors and the DTN Patrick Ranvier.

This commission met this Wednesday (April 13) to « un premier brainstorming » as a federal member told us. It emerged that the FFA would like to allow Halba Diouf to participate in competitions ranging “up to the departmental level”, his performances cannot however be taken into account for an international selection, to participate in national championships or for records.

The athlete, kept informed of progress by the governing bodies of his club, admitted to us ” to be happy “ while wanting “take a step back” with all that, while the FFA commission must meet again in a month.