The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this Thursday (26) a new policy to protect the female category in Olympic sport, according to which, as a rule, only biological women will be able to compete. The decision will be applied from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games onwards.
In the announcement, IOC President Kirsty Coventry declared that it is the right of athletes to participate in fair and safe competitions.
Eligibility for the women’s category will be determined through a unique genetic procedure, which involves screening through saliva, mouth swab or blood sample testing. According to the committee, the procedure is minimally invasive compared to other possible methods and only needs to be done once in a lifetime.
“The IOC considers the presence of the SRY gene – linked to the Y chromosome – to be fixed throughout life and constitutes highly accurate proof that an athlete has undergone male sexual development,” says the statement on the new rule.
Despite the decision, the IOC announced that there will be “rare exceptions” for athletes diagnosed with Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) “or other rare differences/disorders in sexual development (DDS) who do not benefit from the anabolic and/or performance-enhancing effects of testosterone.”
Athletes who test positive for SRY, including XY transgender and androgen-sensitive XY-DSD athletes, will be able to compete in other categories, for example, they will be eligible for any men’s category, including places reserved for men in any mixed category, and any open category, or in sports and events that do not classify athletes by sex.
In the statement, Coventry argued that the new policy is scientifically based and was developed by medical experts. “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest differences can mean the difference between victory and defeat. Therefore, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”
The new IOC guideline should be expanded to International Federations and other sports regulatory bodies, such as National Olympic Committees, National Federations and Continental Associations.
The IOC consulted several experts before announcing the change. According to the newspaper The New York Timesan analysis by the IOC’s medical and scientific director, Jane Thornton, a former Canadian Olympic rower, concluded last year that athletes born with male sex markers maintained physical advantages, including among those who received treatment to reduce testosterone levels. The publication highlights that the research was not publicly released.
“The policy we have announced is based on science and was developed by medical experts,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry said in a statement, adding that it is unfair “and in some sports unsafe” for biological men to compete in the women’s category.
The new policy was developed by a working group created by the IOC to address the growing controversies surrounding women’s sport.
Among them, involving the victories of Imane Khelif (Algeria) and Lin Yu-ting (Taiwan) at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, who left the 2023 World Championships by decision of the International Boxing Association (IBA) after failing to pass gender eligibility tests.
The new rule, the IOC emphasized, “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the women’s category.”
The rule will be used in all modalities of the sports program of an IOC event, including the Olympic Games, in both individual and team sports, although the organization has clarified that it does not apply to grassroots or recreational sports programs.
According to the IOC, the rule was developed “based on the universally accepted view that a women’s category is necessary to allow men and women equal access to elite sport.” The full statement can be accessed here.
