IOC Anticipates Fight Over to Rule Banning Trans Women in Olympics
The International Olympic Committee on Thursday effectively banned transgender women and those with differences in sex development from competing as women at the Olympics, beginning at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. The IOC’s new policy codifies, for the first time, an international standard across sports regarding the classification of eligibility for female athletes, a topic which has been hotly debated within some individual sports and in politics. U.
S. President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers have sought to limit the participation of transgender women in sports through executive orders and through congressional measures, with mixed success. More from Sportico.
com Peak Experience: The Volunteers Who Lifted the Denver Summit ESPN's 'Women's Sports Sundays' Show the Limits of Legacy Media IOC Says It Can't Enforce Olympic Truce Amid U. S. War With Iran Kirsty Coventry, the IOC president and a retired Olympic swimmer for Zimbabwe, said the issue “was a priority” for her long before Trump’s second term.
“There was no pressure from anyone outside the Olympic movement” to institute the policy, she added. At the same time, the IOC conceded that “athletes who identify as women and who want the opportunity to compete at IOC events according to their legal sex or gender identity may disagree” with the policy. Coventry acknowledged that “we don’t have all the answers yet” on how the policy will be implemented.
According to policy language published by the IOC, athletes seeking to compete in women’s events at the Olympics must undergo a one-time screening test, conducted through collection of blood or saliva or with a cheek swab. The administration of these tests will be delegated to international sports federations, such as World Athletics, and national governing bodies, such as the U. S.