The International Olympic Committee banned transgender athletes from competing in the women’s category at the Olympics, after telling its members to conduct mandatory genetic testing for women’s competitions.
The decision, the most consequential since Kirsty Coventry was elected last year as the first woman to serve as president of the I.O.C., followed a board meeting and months of speculation over the organization’s policy on one of the most contentious issues facing global sports. The rules will be applicable from the next Olympics, in Los Angeles in 2028.
As Ms. Coventry, a decorated Olympic swimmer from Zimbabwe, campaigned to lead the organization, she frequently said how important it was to protect the women’s category amid broader — and often bitter — debates about the participation of transgender athletes in sporting competitions.
Under the new policy eligibility will be determined by a one-time gene test, according to the I.O.C. The test, which is already being used in track and field, requires screening via saliva, a cheek swab or a blood sample.
The I.O.C. consulted a number of experts as it grappled with how to handle an issue that was becoming a growing concern for sports leaders. Late last year Dr. Jane Thornton, the I.O.C.’s medical and scientific director and a Canadian former Olympic rower, presented the initial findings of a review of athletes who are transgender or have differences of sexual development, known as DSD, and are competing in women’s sports. That analysis, which has not been made public, stated athletes born with male sexual markers retained physical advantages, including among those that had received treatment to reduce testosterone.
Until now, the I.O.C.’s guidance had permitted transgender women to compete with reduced testosterone levels, but left the final decision to individual sports federations. Track and field, swimming, boxing, and rugby generally restrict transgender athletes from competing in the women’s category.
Women’s sports have been a critical front in a polarizing and public debate over transgender issues that was further inflamed last year when President Trump signed an executive order prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women’s college sports.
Track and field became the first major sport to introduce mandatory DNA sex testing for athletes entering women’s competitions last March. That came less than a year after the issue of eligibility erupted at the Paris Olympics in 2024, when the boxing competition was upended by ugly scenes inside and outside the ring over the participation of two women who went on to secure gold medals.
The I.O.C.’s announcement comes just days after boxing officials cleared featherweight champion Lin Yu-ting to return to the sport after her status — along with that of Algeria’s Imane Khelif, the other woman at center of the gender storm in Paris — had been put in doubt. Lin, 30, can now compete at the Asian Boxing Championships this weekend, her first international event since the Paris Olympics.
The I.O.C. ruling eliminates from women’s competition a minority of athletes who do not have the typical female XX sex chromosomes, and have one of several conditions that together are known as differences in sex development, or DSD. Such people can be female to outward appearances, and some do not know they have DSD. But their unusual genetics can result in high levels of testosterone, and possibly greater muscular development, giving them some of the athletic advantage that men have.
Track and field has been at the forefront of the debate since the South African runner Caster Semenya exploded into the public consciousness by winning gold in the 800 meters at a world championships in 2009. Her victory prompted a backlash from rivals who complained about Ms. Semenya’s appearance, leading to the governing body at the time ordering sex tests. At issue was a rare trait giving her naturally elevated levels of testosterone.
Ms. Semenya has for years battled against previous rules demanding she and others reduce their testosterone, losing a challenge at sport’s top court in 2019. She was among nine African athletes to sign a letter sent to the I.O.C president, Ms. Coventry, in which they detailed “cruel and degrading treatment” they faced due to eligibility regulations for women with sex variations, describing invasive examinations, forced surgeries and harmful hormone treatment that have led, they say, to physical and emotional trauma and come at significant financial cost.
“I have carried this weight. So have other women of color who deserved better from sport,” Ms. Semenya said in a statement to The New York Times. “Reintroducing genetic screening is not progress — it is walking backward,” she said, adding, “This is just exclusion with a new name.”
Tariq Panja is a global sports correspondent, focusing on stories where money, geopolitics and crime intersect with the sports world.
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