IOC inches toward ban on transgender athletes competing as women

The International Olympic Committee on Monday pumped the brakes on a report that the body was preparing to ban male-born athletes from competing in the women’s Olympics, saying “no decision has been made yet.”

A report in The Times of London said that the ban on transgender women in women’s competitions will come into effect as early as 2026 “after a review of science-based evidence on the permanent physical benefits of being born male.”

The IOC stressed that the report was premature but did not rule out that a new policy was forthcoming.

A spokesman confirmed that medical and scientific director Dr Jane Thornton had updated IOC members last week at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on the preliminary findings of a working group studying the issue. But the spokesman said in a statement that “the working group continues its discussions on this issue and no decision has been made yet. More information will be provided at a certain time.”

New IOC chief Kirsty Coventry succeeded Thomas Bach in June and three months later set up a working group on the preservation of the women’s category, made up of experts as well as representatives of the international federations, to study the issue.

The findings and new policy could be announced as soon as the IOC meeting, scheduled for February ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.

Under Bach, the IOC refused to enforce international rules on transgender participation in the Olympics, and transgender athletes remained ineligible. Each international sports federation is allowed to set its own rules.

However, Coventry said in his first news conference after becoming IOC president that he believes Olympic sports should ditch the current narrow procedures for regulating transgender inclusion and instead implement a policy that applies to most or all sports.

“We know there are differences by sport,” she said. “But it was very clear from the members that we have to protect the women category, first and foremost, to ensure fairness.

“We have to do it with a scientific approach and including the international federations that have done a lot in this area.”

President Trump signed an executive order earlier this year banning transgender players from competing in women’s sports in US schools and said he wants to implement the policy at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The order directs the Secretary of State to try to change the IOC’s rules on transgender participation and also directs the immigration authorities of other countries to allow the immigration authorities of athletes from other countries for sports purposes. participation

California Department of Education officials refused to comply with the order. However, Trump’s announcement prompted the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee to change its rules and ban female athletes from participating.

The most recent Olympic controversy over gender eligibility arose at the Paris Games last summer when Algerian boxer Imane Khalif won the women’s welterweight gold medal a year after she was disqualified from the world championships for failing a gender eligibility test.

The IOC allowed Khalif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu Teng to compete in the women’s division because their passports identified them as female. Yu-Ting was banned by the suspended International Boxing Assn. (IBA).

In an effort to prevent athletes who are raised as female but sometimes have male physical advantages – called DSD – this year, international boxing introduced mandatory tests for female athletes to detect a gene on the Y chromosome that promotes the development of male characteristics.

Other sports have established a range of limits to ban or allow female athletes to compete. International Athletics, the international governing body for track and field, bans transgender athletes who go through male puberty. World Rugby bans transgender players from competing at the highest level. And World Aquatics allows transgender athletes to compete as women before the age of 12.

Very few transgender players have participated in these games. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has become the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a gender-differentiated category at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

“I don’t think we have to redo everything that’s been done – we can learn from the international federations and create a task force to look at it consistently and consistently,” Coventry said. “The first principle should be the protection of the female category.”