The International Olympic Committee said it adopted a policy to protect the women’s category in sport that will bar transgender athletes from women’s events starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The IOC said its executive board approved the policy at a meeting on March 26 (local time). Under the new rules, eligibility for women’s events — individual and team — at the Olympics and all IOC-run competitions will be determined by a one-time sex test for the SRY gene, a gene linked to male sex development on the Y chromosome. The IOC said the move brings back sex testing for the first time since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Athletes who test negative will permanently meet the eligibility requirements for the women’s category. Those who test positive will be barred from women’s events at IOC-hosted competitions, except in rare cases involving a diagnosis of differences of sex development (DSD). Athletes with a positive result may compete in men’s events, in men’s positions on mixed teams, or in open-category sports that do not classify athletes by sex.
The IOC said the policy will apply starting with the 2028 LA Olympics. It will not be applied retroactively to earlier competitions and will not apply to amateur or recreational sports programs.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry said the decision was necessary to ensure fairness, safety and integrity in women’s competition. “At the Olympics, extremely small differences in performance can decide the outcome,” she said. “It is clear that it is not fair for biological males to compete in the women’s category,” adding that in some sports it is also directly tied to athlete safety.
The IOC decision aligns with the direction of U.S. sports policy, the article said. It said U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February last year calling to “keep men out of women’s sports,” and that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee later announced steps to bar transgender athletes from women’s events in domestic competitions.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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