Transgender women athletes banned from Olympics by new IOC policy on female eligibility

Lausanne, Switzerland– Transgender athletes are now being excluded from the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee approved a new eligibility policy on Thursday, which aligns with US President Donald Trump’s executive order on women’s sports ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

“Eligibility for any women’s category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, and is determined on the basis of a one-time SRY genetic screening,” the IOC said.

It’s not clear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at the Olympic level. No woman who has transitioned as male will compete in the 2024 Paris Summer Games.

The IOC said the eligibility policy, which will be implemented from the Los Angeles Olympics in July 2028, “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the women’s category.”

The International Olympic Committee, whose Olympic Charter states that playing sport is a human right, said: “It is not retrospective and does not apply to any popular sports or recreational programmes.”

After the executive board meeting, the IOC published a 10-page policy document that also restricts female athletes, such as two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya, who suffer from medical conditions known as differences in sex development, or DSD.

The IOC and its president Kirsty Coventry wanted a clear policy rather than continuing to advise sports governing bodies that had previously drawn up their own rules.

Coventry conducted a review of the “protection of the female category” as one of its first major decisions last June as the first woman to lead the Olympic body in its 132-year history.

Women’s eligibility was a strong topic in last year’s seven-candidate IOC election when Coventry’s main rivals pledged stronger policy leadership on the issue.

Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, three top-tier sports — track and field, swimming and cycling — have already passed rules that exclude transgender women who have gone through male puberty.

The IOC document details its research that being born male confers physical advantages that are retained.

“Males experience three major peaks of testosterone: in utero, at puberty in childhood, and initiating puberty through adulthood,” the document said.

This gives males “individual performance advantages based on gender in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance,” she added.