The new ban aligns the IOC with the Trump administration’s policy goals ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Samantha Riedel at Them:
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Thursday that transgender women and many intersex athletes will be banned from women’s competition, aligning the IOC with the Trump administration’s policy goals ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. The new IOC policy, which has been expected since last November, now requires athletes to be tested for the SRY gene in order to remain eligible for women’s Olympic qualifiers and competitions. Athletes with a positive test will be ineligible, unless they undergo further testing to prove they have an intersex trait that is not sensitive to androgens like testosterone. (A positive test means that a person has an SRY gene, usually attached to their Y chromosomes, but may display variations in hormones and other sex characteristics.) The IOC directed international athletic federations to adopt the new policy, but exempted recreational and grassroots sports leagues.
The 10-page document repeatedly claims that “biological males” hold major athletic advantages over cisgender women, and that there is “no current evidence that testosterone suppression or gender-affirming hormone treatment eliminates this advantage.” But a 2024 study funded in part by the IOC reached the opposite conclusion, finding that trans women may be disadvantaged in some athletic metrics like oxygen consumption and vertical leap. A review of 52 previous studies published in January likewise found that trans women’s athletic performance generally tended to match that of cis women after one or more years on hormone therapy, and the study’s authors cautioned that blanket eligibility bans are unjustified by current data. The use of SRY testing — which will be performed through a cheek swab, per the IOC document — is itself controversial. Such tests were previously performed at the Olympics in the 1990s, but were soon discontinued after scientists raised concerns about accuracy and harm to athletes. Professor Andrew Sinclair, one of the scientists who discovered the SRY gene, denounced World Athletics’ decision to require SRY testing last year, saying it was not a reliable proxy for determining a person’s sexual characteristics.
Earlier this month, a coalition of 90 sports and human rights advocacy groups called on the IOC to halt its plans to ban trans and intersex women, saying that a revival of “sex testing” would “set women’s sports back 30 years.”
This is a clown move from the IOC, as they issued a policy barring trans women and intersex folk from playing in women’s competitions. Such policies also hurt cis women, such as Imane Khelif (who was wrongly accused of being a “man” by anti-trans weirdos).
See Also:
The Advocate: Olympics cave to Trump, banning transgender women from competition
The Present Age (Parker Molloy): The IOC's New Policy Isn't Really a Trans Story