LAUSANNE, Switzerland — In a significant move, the International Olympic Committee has announced a new eligibility policy that excludes transgender women athletes from participating in the Olympics. This decision aligns with a recent executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump focused on women’s sports, looking ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
The IOC stated, “Participation in any female category event at the Olympic Games or other IOC events, including both individual and team sports, will be restricted to individuals identified as biological females.” This determination relies on a one-time SRY gene test.
The number of transgender women competing at the Olympic level remains uncertain, and notably, no athletes who transitioned from male to female participated in the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
The newly adopted policy, effective from the Los Angeles Olympics in July 2028, is designed to uphold “fairness, safety, and integrity in female sports,” as per the IOC’s declaration.
Importantly, the policy is not retroactive and does not extend to grassroots or recreational sports programs. The Olympic Charter emphasizes that access to sport is a fundamental human right, the IOC noted.
Following its executive board meeting, the International Olympic Committee released a detailed 10-page document outlining this policy. It also places restrictions on female athletes with medical conditions known as differences in sex development (DSD), such as two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya.
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.”
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