The International Olympic Committee has imposed a discriminatory ban on transgender athletes from participating in all women’s Olympic sporting competitions, including both individual and team sports, with the new rules set to go into effect for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“The policy explains that, for all disciplines on the sports programme of an IOC event, including the Olympic Games and for both individual and team sports, eligibility for any female category is limited to biological females,” the IOC said in a lengthy online post describing the new policy.
Eligibility to participate in the “female” category will be determined “by SRY gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY gene,” the policy states, referring to the acronym for “sex-determining region Y gene,” which the IOC says “is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development.”
“Unless there is reason to believe that a negative reading is in error, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime test,” the policy says.
Such sex testing has long faced widespread criticism — perhaps most notably in the case of Caster Semenya, a South African Olympic track star who has spent years fighting legal battles after governing bodies like World Athletics imposed policies such as one in 2018 that required women with naturally high levels of testosterone to reduce their testosterone levels in order to compete. Many of those regulations have specifically targeted the competitions Semenya is known for.
Now, however, the Olympics are taking it a step further by imposing invasive sex testing.
“The policy is the result of an IOC review between September 2024 and March 2026, and included consideration of the IOC’s policy goals for the female category, which are, in addition to ensuring fairness, safety and integrity in elite competition, to promote equality, enhance Olympic value and increase visibility for the female category,” the IOC stated when announcing the new policy. “For these reasons, the Olympic Movement has a compelling interest in having a sex-based female category.”
IOC president Kirsty Coventry said in a March 26 press conference that the executive board met earlier in the day and unanimously approved the new policy. Conventry said she is “proud” of it.
“I really believe that this policy is foundationaly based in science and has been led by medical experts,” Coventry insisted. “It has been done with the best interest of athletes right at the heart.”
Coventry acknowledged that the issue is “sensitive” and said the IOC considered all stakeholders involved.
The policy comes one year after President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to ban trans athletes from playing in women’s sports. The executive order was entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
