Swimming-Swim England updates transgender policy with 'open' category

FILE PHOTO: Rio Olympics - Swimming - Preliminary - Women's 100m Freestyle - Heats - Olympic Aquatics Stadium - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - 10/08/2016. Competitors dive into the pool at the start of the heat. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

LONDON (Reuters) - Swim England announced an updated transgender and non-binary policy on Monday with a 'female' category restricted to athletes with a declared birth sex of female and a new 'open' category for everyone else.

The national governing body for swimming in England said the policy, which comes into effect in September, would apply to its swimming, artistic swimming, diving and water polo competitions.