The great marathons follow New York, opening to “non-binary” athletes – Corriere.it

After New York, from the next editions also Berlin, Boston, Chicago and London, belonging to the restricted association World Marathon Majors, will open to the non-binary category that will join the male and female ones. Always in step with its times, born precisely as a historical event at the time of the First Persian War, the race will allow runners who do not identify themselves in an established gender, and refuse the binarism given at the birth certificate, to participate by registering without necessarily having to recognize themselves only in the gender couple. Guaranteeing representation to non-binary people, in marathons with a strong social impact, is an important recognition of the LGBTQ + community. It follows that in the category dedicated to non-binary people, people of both biological sexes will be able to compete.

The BAA (Boston Athletics Association) has stated that runners will be able to select the non-binary gender option as soon as they register for next year’s race (10th anniversary of the 2013 attack), a novelty that will gradually be extended to all BAA events. A trend also taken up by the London Marathon, always careful to expand and respect the evolution of customs and the representation of diversity in foot races to make them more suitable for everyone. The binary split will continue to be present among professionals, as the non-binary category will only apply to the event open to all others. For runners who want to participate in the Boston Marathon, the same admission criteria will always apply: since the only one to require a minimum time, the organization has decided, as it does not yet have sufficient data to establish non-binary qualifying times, to adopt temporarily the standards applied to women. Subsequently, participants will be required to update minimums to the athletic characteristics of the non-binary category. Currently, to register for non-professional competitive races, women aged 18 to 34 must have run a marathon in at least 3 hours and 30 minutes, while for men of the same age group a time of under 3 hours is required, with the increase of the age the times required go up.

So far over two hundred competitions across the United States have added the non-binary category for entrants, according to Jake Fedorowski, a runner who created a guide for non-binary runners. Based on his experience on the racing field, most of the runners in the new category go unnoticed, as they run together and mix with tens of thousands of other amateur competitors. a category in constant growth as evidenced by the Brooklyn marathon and half marathon among the most popular, which had over eighty non-binaries in the editions of April 2022. This is a turning point for rights in the world of sport , which meets runners who have become aware of their sex after some time from the moment of birth, which applies the dual scheme. Currently five of the six cities hosting the World Marathon Majors opt for an inclusive policy with the exception of Tokyo., but times are changing and even the Japanese one, more conservative and traditionalist, will probably take notice soon. Certainly what will never be questioned is the identity of the Marathon which will always be of the same distance (42km and 195 meters) as times will change as well but not the distance as one with the name it bears.