IOC’s Groundbreaking Decision: Transgender Athletes Barred from Women’s Events – Unpacking the Impact on Laurel Hubbard and Imane Khelif

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has introduced stringent regulations, effectively barring transgender and certain athletes with Differences in Sex Development (DSD) from participating in women’s sports. This move comes with a mandate for comprehensive sex testing under the new guidelines.

The IOC has implemented a groundbreaking one-time SRY gene test, which they assert will uphold ‘fairness, safety, and integrity’ within women’s sporting events.

This ruling effectively excludes transgender athletes, such as the now-retired Laurel Hubbard, and requires DSD athletes to demonstrate that they do not gain an advantage from elevated testosterone levels, which could enhance performance.

This decisive action follows notable controversies surrounding boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting at the Paris 2024 Olympics, after allegations emerged regarding their failure to meet gender eligibility criteria set by the International Boxing Association (IBA).

Khelif, who secured a gold medal in the women’s welterweight category at the 2024 Paris Olympics, has consistently refuted claims of being transgender and has undergone treatment to reduce testosterone levels.

Transgender athletes are now blocked from taking part in women’s sports at the Olympics (pictured: Laurel Hubbard in the Tokyo Games in 2021)

All athletes wishing to take part in women’s events must take sex tests (pictured: Imane Khelif)

The Algerian is also open to taking a sex test to compete, saying last month: ‘Of course, I would accept doing anything I’m required to do to participate in competitions. They should protect women, but they need to pay attention that while protecting women, they shouldn’t hurt other women.’

IOC president Kirsty Coventry said: ‘As a former athlete, 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. 

‘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.

‘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.’

A World Athletics Spokesperson said: ‘We have led the way in protecting women’s sport over the last decade. Attracting and retaining more girls and women into sport requires a fair and level playing field where there is no biological glass ceiling. This means that gender cannot trump biology. A consistent approach across all sport has to be a good thing.’

The IOC’s decision was welcomed by the likes of sports presenter Laura Woods, who commented under their post with clapping emojis, and former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies.

But Davies called for the policy to stretch further, writing on X: ‘Olympics to announce transgender ban in all women’s sport. The female category to be returned to females at the Olympics. This must also happen at grassroots and recreational [levels]. Sex based protected cannot only be for the top one per cent.’

Olympics chief Kirsty Coventry said the new rule would help ensure the safety of female stars

The IOC’s new rules do not filter down to grassroots or recreational sports programmes, meaning young girls could still face transgender athletes in their respective disciplines. 

The SRY gene test is a one-off saliva, cheek swab or blood test. It is seen by the IOC as unintrusive compared to other possible sex testing methods. The SRY gene, located on the Y chromosome, is found in men.

Lin, who won the women’s featherweight boxing title in Paris, was recently cleared to return to World Boxing events after a sex test, casting doubt on the fairness of the controversy which engulfed her at the last Olympics. 

Khelif and Lin faced doubts over their gender eligibility for the Games after allegedly failing the International Boxing Associations’s (IBA) sex test in 2023 and being thrown out of the World Championships. The IBA was discredited by the IOC. 

Hubbard is a different case entirely. The 48-year-old weightlifter is openly transgender and competed in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. 

Hubbard was born in 1978 and given the name Gavin. The New Zealander transitioned in 2012 at the age of 35 and went on to win two World Championship silver medals in 2017 and compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. 

More than 80 human rights and sport advocacy groups recently called on the IOC to abandon their plans for mandatory sex testing, but their calls have been snubbed.

The sex tests cost around £185. It is not yet clear if athletes, who are often on a financial tightrope, will be required to pay for tests themselves. 

Last year, former British middle-distance runner Lynsey Sharp said she would have won bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics if gender testing rules had been in place then.

She finished sixth behind three athletes with DSD.

‘Sometimes I look back and think I could have had an Olympic medal, but I gave it my all that day and that was the rules at the time,’ she told Sky News. ‘Obviously, I wish I was competing nowadays, but that was my time in the sport and that’s how it was.’

Caster Semenya was a high-profile example of an athlete with DSD. Semenya was assigned female at birth and identifies as a woman, but had a higher-than-normal level of testosterone for a woman. She has the typical male XY chromosome pattern.

Semenya won Olympic gold in the women’s 800m event at the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.  

Meanwhile, recent years have seen sports tighten regulations surrounding transgender athletes switching category.

In 2020, World Rugby became the first international sports federation to ban ‘trans women’ from the elite and international levels of the sport.

However, in April last year, the Football Association refused to ban transgender footballers from playing in the women’s game.