Transgender women will be BANNED from competing in all female events at theOlympic Games. TheInternational Olympic Committee's (IOC's) decision follows the findings of a scientific review about the permanent physical advantages of being born male.
A report fromthe Times explains that the IOC are likely to announce their new policy early next year. Until now, the IOC's guidance to Olympic sports has been that transgender women can compete with reduced testosterone levels, leaving it to individual sports to decide.
Their stance will change under new president Kirsty Coventry, who's pledged to protect the female category. It's added in the report that the committee's medical and scientific director, Dr Jane Thornton, presented the initial findings of the review to IOC members at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland last week.
Thornton, a Canadian former Olympic rower, is said to have told those present that scientific evidence showed there were physical advantages to being born male that remained with athletes, including those who've had treatment to reduce their testosterone levels.
A source is quoted as saying: "It was a very scientific, factual and unemotional presentation which quite clearly laid out the evidence. Another source with knowledge of the meeting said that there'd been hugely positive feedback from IOC members.
Currently, a passage on Olympics.com reads: "The IOC supports the participation of any athlete who has qualified and met the eligibility criteria to compete in the Olympic Games as established by their IF. The IOC will not discriminate against an athlete who has qualified through their IF, on the basis of their gender identity and/or sex characteristics."
There was huge controversy during theboxing tournament at the Paris Olympics when two boxers, Algeria's Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan, both won gold medals. That was despite the pair both being disqualified from the previous year's World Championships, having allegedly failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.
World Boxing - the new international boxing federation which the IOC has recognised since Paris, has now introduced mandatory sex testing. They added that Khelif won't be able to compete in the female category until she undergoes one.
It's claimed that the IOC is likely to announce their new policy in early 2026, possibly around its session at theWinter Olympics in February. Coventry, a former Olympic swimmer from Zimbabwe who was elected this year, stated in June when asked about the topic: "We understand there will be differences depending on the sports.
"We should make the effort to place emphasis on the protection of the female category and we should ensure that this is done in consensus with all the stakeholders. But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area."
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