New IOC Policy Excludes Transgender Women from Women's Olympic Events
IOC Implements New Eligibility Rules
In a significant policy shift, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to exclude transgender women from participating in women's events at the Olympics. This decision aligns with a recent executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump regarding sports, ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games. According to the IOC, eligibility for any female category event will now be restricted to biological females, determined by a mandatory gene test that athletes must undergo once in their lifetime.
Currently, it remains uncertain how many transgender women are competing at the Olympic level. Notably, no transgender woman who transitioned from male to female participated in the upcoming 2024 Paris Summer Games, although weightlifter Laurel Hubbard competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without securing a medal.
The IOC stated that this new eligibility policy, effective from July 2028, aims to ensure fairness, safety, and integrity within the female category. Importantly, this policy is not retroactive and does not affect grassroots or recreational sports programs. The IOC's Olympic Charter emphasizes that access to sports is a fundamental human right.
Following an executive board meeting, the IOC released a comprehensive 10-page policy document that also imposes restrictions on female athletes with medical conditions known as differences in sex development (DSD), such as two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya. The IOC, led by president Kirsty Coventry, has sought to establish a clear policy rather than allowing individual sports governing bodies to create their own rules.
Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, highlighted the importance of fairness in competition, stating, "At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. It is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category." She initiated a review focused on protecting the female category as one of her first major actions after becoming the first woman to lead the IOC in its 132-year history.
The issue of female eligibility was a prominent topic during the IOC elections last year, particularly following controversies surrounding women's boxing in Paris. Coventry's main opponents advocated for a stronger stance on this matter. Prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics, three major sports—track and field, swimming, and cycling—had already barred transgender women who had undergone male puberty from competing.
Semenya, who was assigned female at birth in South Africa and possesses naturally high testosterone levels, won a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights in her long-standing legal battle against track and field regulations, although this did not overturn the existing rules.
The IOC's policy document outlines research indicating that being born male confers physical advantages that persist throughout an athlete's life. The document states, "Males experience three significant testosterone peaks: in utero, during infancy, and at the onset of puberty through adulthood," which contributes to performance advantages in strength, power, and endurance sports.
The IOC's expert group concluded that the current gene test is the most accurate and least intrusive method available, screening for the SRY gene, which is typically found on the Y chromosome and indicates male sex development in utero.
However, the mandatory gender screening, already implemented by governing bodies in sports like track and field, skiing, and boxing, is expected to face criticism from human rights advocates and activist organizations. Recently, one of the women's boxing gold medalists involved in the gender controversy in Paris, Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan, successfully passed her gene test and is eligible to return to competition, according to the World Boxing governing body.
In the United States, President Trump signed the executive order titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" in February of last year, which included provisions to deny visas to certain athletes aiming to compete at the Los Angeles Olympics. The order also threatened to withdraw funding from organizations that permitted transgender athletes to participate in women's sports. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Olympic body updated its guidelines for national sports organizations, emphasizing compliance with the White House's directives.