Transgender athletes banned from competing in women’s sports at Olympics
· Toronto Sun
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ruled that transgender athletes can no longer compete in its women’s sports.
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The new eligibility policy, which aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order on women’s sports that excludes transgender women athletes, will be in effect starting with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening,” the IOC said on Thursday.
The policy aims to protect “fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,” the IOC said.
“It is not retroactive and does not apply to any grassroots or recreational sports programs,” the committee added.
IOC president Kirsty Coventry, who has been in the role for less than a year, said last June that there would be a taskforce of scientists and international federations to come up with a new policy to “protect the female category.”
A guideline for all sports to follow
The IOC and Coventry’s goal was to come up with a clear, all-encompassing policy that could bring about a broad consensus among sports’ governing bodies, which previously have drafted their own unique rules.
Prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics, three sports — track and field, swimming, and cycling — had passed rules excluding transgender women who had been through male puberty.
Following medical and scientific research, along with the nuances of what international federations have done, the result was a 10-page document, which also restricts female athletes like two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya with medical conditions known as differences in sex development, or DSD.
Science-based, medical expert-led results
The IOC policy details its research that being born male gives physical advantages that don’t go away.
“Males experience three significant testosterone peaks: In utero, in mini-puberty of infancy and beginning in adolescent puberty through adulthood,” the document read.
It noted that those peaks gives males “individual sex-based performance advantages in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance.”
Coventry, a Zimbabwean former Olympic swimmer, said in a statement: “I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts.”
She noted: “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. 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.”
Coventry added: “Every athlete must be treated with dignity and respect, and athletes will need to be screened only once in their lifetime. There must be clear education around the process and counselling available, alongside expert medical advice.”
— With files from the Associated Press