The International Olympic Committee has announced the Policy on the Protection of the Female Category in Olympic Sport that dictates that only biological women will be allowed into women's Olympic sports, effectively banning transgender athletes from women's sports. The decision, announced by IOC President Kirsty Coventry, follows similar decisions from World Athletics, which introduced mandatory gender testing in 2025, or the executive decision taken by Donald Trump as one of the first politics of his second term.
Eligibility for any female sport under IOC will be based on tests via saliva, cheek swab or blood samples, "unintrusive compared to other possible methods" as IOC points out, and made only once in life, that will check the absence or presence of the SRY gene, present in male sex development.
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Those with a diagnosis of Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS) or other rare differences/disorders in sex development (DSDs) that test positive on the SRY gene will be eligible if they don't benefit from the anabolic and/or performance-enhancing effects of testosterone, IOC says.
On the other hand, athletes that test positive on SRY, including XY transgender and androgen-sensitive XY-DSD athletes, would be eligible for any male category.
"The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts. At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category", said Coventry. "In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe."
This measure reinstates sex verification tests that were common throughout modern Olympic history but were retired during the late 1990s due to criticism about reliability of tests and concerns about discrimination of athletes and violations of dignity of athletes.