IOC rules that Olympic women's sports are for biological females only

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said that the women’s category of olympic sports will be restricted to those who are biologically female from 2028. The policy will prevent transgender athletes and those with differences in sexual development (DSD) from competing.

The IOC’s new policy will require a “once in a lifetime” sex test to determine whether a competitor is female or not. The eligibility will be determined by screening for the SRY gene, the sex-determining region Y gene, which forms part of the Y chromosome responsible for male characteristics. Until now the IOC have left sex eligibility regulations to the individual sports’ governing bodies, but have now taken a wider reaching approach.

The IOC says that the new policy of “SRY gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods”, and that athletes who screen negative for the gene “permanently satisfy this policy's eligibility criteria for competition in the female category.”

“Unless there is reason to believe that a negative reading is in error, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime test“ the IOC added. Those who fail the test will still be eligible to compete in any classifications for which they still qualify, such as a male category, or an open category for those sports which do not classify competitors by sex.

The new policy will also affect those with DSD, a condition where a person’s genes and/or reproductive organs may be a mix of male and female. Under earlier rules, athletes with DSD were able to compete in women’s sports provided they had not gone through male puberty and kept their testosterone within certain levels.

IOC President, Kirsty Coventry, said the new policy was “led by medical experts”. “At the Olympic Games even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” she said, adding: “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.”

The new regulations will come into effect for the Los Angeles games in 2028.