BERLIN, Germany (LifeSiteNews) – A proposed “open category” for gender-dysphoric swimmers at World Aquatics’ Berlin Swimming World Cup starting this weekend has been axed due to no one applying to take advantage of it.

“Following the close of registration for the open category competitions at the World Aquatics Swimming World Cup – the Berlin 2023 meet scheduled for October 6-8th – World Aquatics can confirm that no entries have been received for the open category events,” announced the organization (previously known as the International Swimming Federation), Fox News reported.

The category was announced in July to accommodate “transgender”-identifying swimmers to appease LGBT activists who had complained that the organization only allowed “trans female” (i.e., biologically male) swimmers to compete against actual women if they had started their transitioning before age 12.

Despite no actual swimmers wanting to take advantage of the accommodation, World Aquatics reassured activists that its Open Category Working Group would “continue its work and engagement with the aquatics community on Open Category events. Even if there is no current demand at the elite level, the working group is planning to look at the possibility of including Open Category races at Masters events in the future.”

The lack of actual demand for an open category puts into perspective the scope of the issue, which critics have long accused of being driven more by activists than actual need. Prominent female competitive swimmers Riley Gaines and Kaitlynn Wheeler also suggested that “trans” swimmers’ lack of interest in a category specifically for them illustrated that their demands for “inclusion” are not truly about participation but in guaranteeing an unfair advantage in competition.

Of course men wouldn’t want to compete in a third category against other men when competing in the women’s category is easier. This isn’t about fairness or equal opportunity, it’s about domination. #SaveWomensSports https://t.co/LyfAp4Ct7N

— Kaitlynn Wheeler (@WheelerKaitlynn) October 6, 2023

Katie Barnes, author of a book defending biological males competing against female athletes, argued to LGBTQ Nation that separate “gender neutral” competition categories were not a realistic solution because “there are so few” gender-dysphoric athletes at such competitive levels. “So, who are they competing against?”

Mandatory inclusion of gender-confused individuals in opposite-sex sports is promoted as a matter of “inclusivity,” but critics note that indulging “transgender” athletes undermines the original rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place, thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities. 

There have been numerous high-profile examples in recent years of men winning women’s competitions, and research affirms that physiology gives males distinct athletic advantages that cannot be fully negated by hormone suppression.

In a 2019 paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy;” therefore, “the advantage to transwomen [biological men] afforded by the [International Olympic Committee] guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”