Tokyo Marathon adds nonbinary category for 2025 race

The 2025 Tokyo Marathon will allow athletes to select nonbinary as their gender identity instead of male or female during registration.

The 2025 Tokyo Marathon will allow athletes to select nonbinary as their gender identity instead of male or female during registration. Now, all six Abbott World Marathon Majors — a circuit of the largest, most renowned marathons across the globe — have a nonbinary category for athletes.

“The Tokyo Marathon Foundation is committed to promoting DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) and aims to be the most inclusive race in the world,” the foundation, which organizes the Tokyo race, said in a news release on Monday.

In 2019, the Tokyo Marathon Foundation signed a pledge to promote gender diversity in sporting events with Pride House Tokyo, an organization that aims to create a safe space for LGBTQ athletes in Japan. Pride House Tokyo has been advising the foundation on best practices to accommodate athletes outside of the gender binary.

In addition to allowing participants to register under a nonbinary category, the next Tokyo Marathon, which will take place on March 2, will provide gender-neutral restrooms and changing areas located at the start line, finish and along the course. There will also be seminars on LGBTQ issues for volunteers and administrators working the event.

Activist and runner Cal Calamia has been a part of a growing effort to bring gender inclusivity into major races since 2022, when they fought for medals to be awarded to the top nonbinary finishers of San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers course. Calamia, who uses both he and they pronouns, has gone on to petition the world’s largest marathons, such as Boston and New York, to enact change.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/tokyo-marathon-adds-nonbinary-category-2025-race-rcna159284

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