In a significant development, women’s rights activists are calling on the International Paralympic Committee to align with the International Olympic Committee’s recent decision to safeguard women’s sports. This follows the IOC’s groundbreaking move to prohibit all transgender athletes from participating in the Olympic Games.

Earlier this week, Daily Mail Sport highlighted that the IOC, led by its new president, Kirsty Coventry, is preparing for a substantial policy overhaul. This change is expected to enforce a comprehensive ban affecting all sports for the upcoming Los Angeles Games.

Previously, the decision on whether transgender women could compete was left to each sport’s governing body, contingent upon testosterone levels being under specified limits. However, the IOC has now opted to take direct action on this matter.

Expressing concern, a group of activists commented on social media platform X, “Amidst the enthusiasm for the IOC’s steps to defend female sports, it’s crucial to remember that the Paralympic Games still lag significantly behind.”

They referenced the example from the Paris Paralympics, where Valentina Petrillo, an Italian former male athlete in his 50s, competed against younger women in the T12 400 and 200-meter races for partially-sighted athletes.

Activists have called for the Paralympics to impose a ban on transgender athletes following the International Olympic Committee’s decision (pictured: transgender runner Valentina Petrillo)

Despite the President of the Paralympic Games, Andrew Parsons, previously expressing opposition to a blanket ban on transgender athletes, the activists are urging him to establish fair rules for female competitors. They believe it is time to ensure equity in women’s sports within the Paralympic arena.

‘No one is calling for a ban. We just want female sports to be for females only. Paralympic athletes deserve the same rights to fairness as their Olympic peers.’ 

Valentina Petrillo famously made headlines around the world during her appearance at the Paris Games. 

Petrillo sparked fury from politicians in her native Italy as well as from author JK Rowling who called her an ‘out and proud cheat’ when her qualification for the Paralympics was revealed, having raced as a man until eight years ago.

She was allowed to compete at the Paralympics because her testosterone levels were below the legal limit required to compete thanks to hormone treatment and she was given the green light by the sport’s governing body. 

Her passport – which she obtained in 2023 – lists her as a woman, and she said during the Paris Games that nothing would stop her achieving her dream. 

She failed to qualify for the finals of either the 200m or 400m races.

‘I’m not bothered what JK Rowling or anyone else says, I’m just here for myself and my family. There’s a lot of transphobia out there and I’m here only to compete and ignoring that outside noise,’ the defiant sprinter said. 

Elsewhere, the IOC move will prevent the kind of scenario that saw Laurel Hubbard contest the weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Hubbard transitioned in 2012. 

While Olympic sources have confirmed that such a measure is very much the ‘direction of travel’, it is highly unlikely to come into force before the Winter Olympics in Italy next February. 

A ban on transgender women in Olympic sports is edging closer and is expected to be in place for the LA Games in 2028 (pictured – transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand)

IOC President Kirsty Coventry has expressed her desire to ‘protect the female category’

One report suggested that a rule change could be announced in February, but insiders estimated it might take between six months and a year for it to be approved and cleared.

The move would be seen as a box ticked by Coventry, who campaigned to protect the female category on her way to winning the presidential election earlier this year.

It would also avoid any awkward flashpoints with Donald Trump in the build-up to the LA Olympics – in February, the US President signed an executive order to prevent transgender women from competing in female sport.

Such has been the focus on this area that a presentation was delivered by IOC medical, health, and science director Dr Jane Thornton to members in Lausanne last week, which included a science-based review around trans and differences of sexual development (DSD) issues. The IOC denied that any decision has been made on either front and it is understood there has not yet been a presentation to the executive board, which next convenes in December.

Petrillo was criticised by Italian politicians and JK Rowling at the Paris Paralympics

An IOC statement to Daily Mail Sport read: ‘An update was given by the IOC’s director of health, medicine and science to the IOC Members last week during the IOC commission meetings. The working group is continuing its discussions on this topic and no decisions have been taken yet.’

Among the points stressed in that presentation was the distinction between transgender and DSD in athletes who have male chromosomes but were raised as female. On the latter, which led to immense controversy at the boxing at Paris 2024, the future landscape is less clear.

It is understood that a rule change around DSD athletes is considered likely in the long run, but faces internal opposition, according to Daily Mail Sport sources.

That separate branch of the debate led to fury in Paris last year when Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan won boxing gold medals after being disqualified from the World Championships in 2023 for reportedly failing gender eligibility tests. 

The IOC executive committee, which included Coventry at the time, faced huge criticism for permitting them to fight.