Transgender women athletes are now excluded from women’s events at the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to a new eligibility policy on Thursday. This aligns with President Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The IOC stated that eligibility for any female category event is limited to biological females, determined by a mandatory gene test once in an athlete’s career. It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
The IOC said this policy protects fairness, safety, and integrity in the female category. However, it does not apply to grassroots or recreational sports programs. The policy also restricts female athletes with conditions known as differences in sex development (DSD).
The IOC and its president, Kirsty Coventry, have wanted a clear policy instead of continuing to advise sports’ governing bodies who previously drafted their own rules. Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, stated that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.
Female eligibility was a strong theme in a seven-candidate IOC election last year. Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, three top-tier sports excluded transgender women who had been through male puberty. Semenya won a European Court of Human Rights judgment on her legal challenge to track and field’s rules but they were not overturned.
The IOC document details its research that being born male gives physical advantages retained in strength, power, and endurance events. The current gene test is the most accurate and least intrusive method available, screening for the SRY gene which initiates male sex development in utero.
Still, the mandatory gender screening is likely to be criticized by human rights experts and activist groups. In the U.S., President Trump signed an executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” last year, threatening to deny visas to some athletes attempting to compete at the L.A Olympics and rescind funds from organizations allowing transgender athletes in women’s sports. The U.S. Olympic body updated its guidance to national sports bodies citing an obligation to comply with the White House.