Transgender women banned from female Olympic events in new IOC ruling

Future women’s Olympic events will now be limited to biological females, starting from the Los Angeles 2028 Games, in a ruling announced today by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC’s new policy rules that eligibility for the women’s category will be determined by a one-time gene-screening test, in a move the committee said would “ensure fairness and protect safety, particularly in contact sports”. It means transgender women will be banned from competing at the Olympics as females.

Previously, openly transgender athletes, such as New Zealand’s weightlifter Laurel Hubbard , could compete in a different gender category to the one assigned at birth if cleared by their federation. The ruling will also apply to those athletes with differences in sexual development (DSD) who have gone through male puberty. The IOC said any athletes found to posses the sex-determining SRY gene – a gene located on the Y chromosome – would be ineligible for the women’s category.

“Based on scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development,” the IOC said in a statement. The policy was reviewed after the 2024 Paris Olympics , and the ruling follows an 18-month consultation by the IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, who said after taking over last year that the organisation would take a uniform approach . International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry announced the new policy (PA) “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry said.

“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. “I understand that this is a very sensitive topic.