Only biological women will be able to participate in women's disciplines in the Olympic Games

BarcelonaThe International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced its new policy for the protection of the female category in Olympic sport, under which only biological women will be able to compete, a rule that will apply from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, had already explained during the elections a year ago that she was in favor of a policy of this kind, and this Thursday she has made the regulation official, which means closing the door to trans athletes in the next Games.

This change comes after months of debate. In the last Olympic Games, in Paris, there was much debate about the case of boxers Imane Khelif (Algerian, who won Gold) and Lin Yu-ting (Taiwan), who were accused by rivals and the International Boxing Federation of having male chromosomes, despite the fact that both had competed all their lives as women without any problems and had passed all kinds of tests, including the previous Tokyo Games. But in 2023 they were sanctioned during a boxing world championship, a sanction that did not prevent them from being in Paris and passing new tests. Khelif's case, however, was used by right-wing politicians, such as the Italian Giorgia Meloni or Donald Trump, president of the United States. The North American leader, in fact, had exerted a lot of pressure to demand a change in regulations, as has finally happened, before the Games to be held in two years in his country.

According to the new regulation, eligibility for the female category will be determined in the first instance by a test for the detection of the SRY gene, present only in biological men, which must be negative. "The IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and constitutes a highly accurate test that an athlete has undergone male sexual development," it is explained in the statement. "Rare exceptions" will be considered, such as athletes diagnosed with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome or other differences or disorders of sex development, who do not benefit from the anabolic effects or performance enhancements from testosterone.

The Semenya precedent

A few years ago, the case of South African sprint athlete Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic and three-time world champion, caused a lot of controversy. In 2019, she received a ruling that obliged her to take medication to lower her natural testosterone levels in order to compete as a woman. According to the IOC, the new rule "protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category," and will be used in all disciplines of the sports program of an IOC event, including the Olympic Games, and in both individual and team sports.

Conversely, transgender XY athletes (biological males) and those with androgen-sensitive disorders of sex development will have to compete in male categories. The test to detect this, with a saliva or blood sample, is minimally invasive compared to other possible methods, and only needs to be done once in a lifetime, according to the IOC. "The policy we have announced is based on science and has been developed by medical experts," defended Kirsty Coventry, who added that it is unfair "and in some sports unsafe" for biological males to compete in the female category.

A few months ago, the Trump administration issued a decree prohibiting trans women from participating in women's sports competitions. Trump, who ordered that only gender binarism be recognized, had stated in 2025 that for the 2028 Games, visa applications "submitted by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States because they identify as female athletes and want to compete in women's sports" would be rejected.