IOC Introduces New Eligibility Rules Impacting Transgender Women in Olympic Sports

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — In a significant decision, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to bar transgender women from participating in the Olympic Games. This new eligibility rule, unveiled on Thursday, aligns with the recent executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump concerning women’s sports as preparations begin for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

The IOC announced that “participation in any female category event at the Olympic Games or other IOC-endorsed events, whether in individual or team sports, is now reserved exclusively for biological females.” This determination will be based on a one-time test for the SRY gene.

Currently, it’s uncertain how many transgender women, if any, are competing at an Olympic level. Notably, no transgender women athletes were present at the 2024 Paris Summer Games.

The policy set to be enforced from the Los Angeles Olympics in July 2028 aims to uphold “fairness, safety, and integrity within the female category,” according to the IOC.

The IOC clarified that this policy will not be applied retroactively and does not affect grassroots or recreational sports. The Olympic Charter emphasizes that access to sports is considered a human right.

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

The IOC and its president, Kirsty Coventry, have wanted a clear policy instead of continuing to advise sports’ governing bodies who previously have drafted their own rules.

Coventry set up a review of “protecting the female category” as one of her first big decisions last June as the first woman to lead the Olympic body in its 132-year history.

Female eligibility was a strong theme in a seven-candidate IOC election last year when Coventry’s main rivals pledged a stronger policy to lead on the issue.

Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, three top-tier sports – track and field, swimming and cycling – already passed rules excluding transgender women who had been through male puberty.

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

“Males experience three significant testosterone peaks: in utero, in mini-puberty of infancy and beginning in adolescent puberty through adulthood,” the document said.

It added this gives males “individual sex-based performance advantages in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance.”