Transgender women banned from female Olympic events in new IOC ruling
· Yahoo Sports
Future women’s Olympic events will now be limited to biological females, starting from the Los Angeles 2028 Games, in a ruling announced today by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
The IOC’s new policy rules that eligibility for the women’s category will be determined by a one-time gene-screening test, in a move the committee said would “ensure fairness and protect safety, particularly in contact sports”.
Visit afnews.co.za for more information.
It means transgender women will be banned from competing at the Olympics as females. Previously, openly transgender athletes, such as New Zealand’s weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, could compete in a different gender category to the one assigned at birth if cleared by their federation. The ruling will also apply to those athletes with differences in sexual development (DSD) who have gone through male puberty.
The IOC said any athletes found to posses the sex-determining SRY gene – a gene located on the Y chromosome – would be ineligible for the women’s category.
“Based on scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development,” the IOC said in a statement.
The policy was reviewed after the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the ruling follows an 18-month consultation by the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, who said after taking over last year that the organisation would take a uniform approach.
International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry announced the new policy (PA)“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry said. “So it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.
“I understand that this is a very sensitive topic. As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and it has been led by medical experts with the best interests of athletes at its heart. The scientific evidence is very clear: male chromosomes give performance advantages in sports that rely on strength, power or endurance.”
Gender eligibility was a major talking point at the Paris Olympics. The Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who is not transgender, was cleared to compete by the IOC after she was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for allegedly failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.
The organiser of those World Championships, the International Boxing Association (IBA), had previously been expelled by the Olympics movement due to concerns over its governance. Lin Yu-ting, of Taiwan, also won gold in Paris after allegedly failing a gender eligibility test the previous year.
Imane Khelif was a controversial winner of Olympic boxing gold in Paris (PA)President Trump last year signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports in the United States, and said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The IOC said in a statement that there were exceptions for rare cases of sex development, adding: “With the rare exception of athletes with a diagnosis of complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS) or other rare differences/disorders in sex development (DSDs) who do not benefit from the anabolic and/or performance-enhancing effects of testosterone, no athlete with an SRY-positive screen is eligible for competition in the female category at an IOC event.”
The new rules have no retroactive power and have no impact on grassroots or amateur sports.
The IOC said the one-time gene-screening test would be conducted via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample, and would be “unintrusive compared to other possible methods”.
Sports such as athletics and swimming had previously banned transgender athletes who had gone through male puberty from competing in international competition.