The policy explains that, for all disciplines on the sports programme of an IOC event, including the Olympic Games and for both individual and team sports, eligibility for any female category is limited to biological females.
Eligibility for the female category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY gene.
Based on scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development. Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods.
Athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene permanently satisfy this policy’s eligibility criteria for competition in the female category. Unless there is reason to believe that a negative reading is in error, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime test.
With the rare exception of athletes with a diagnosis of Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS) or other rare differences/disorders in sex development (DSDs) who do not benefit from the anabolic and/or performance-enhancing effects of testosterone, no athlete with an SRY-positive screen is eligible for competition in the female category at an IOC event.
Athletes with an SRY-positive screen, including XY transgender and androgen-sensitive XY-DSD athletes, continue to be included in all other classifications for which they qualify. For example, they are eligible for any male category, including in a designated male slot within any mixed category, and any open category, or in sports and events that do not classify athletes by sex.
Speaking about the policy, IOC President Kirsty Coventry said: “As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition. The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts. At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
She continued: “Every athlete must be treated with dignity and respect, and athletes will need to be screened only once in their lifetime. There must be clear education around the process and counselling available, alongside expert medical advice.”
Posted by cmaia1503
33 Comments
This is unfair. Trans women also have the right to participate.
Fuck Coventry.
EDIT: oh and this line: “Every athlete must be treated with dignity and respect”? Fucking LOL.
And I will be banning the Olympics from all my screens ✌🏻
All this for a group of people who make up like less than 1% of the population.
Ok but now will they ban rapists from competing or no?
The men’s league is also technically the open league where anyone can participate…the women’s league is for biological women.
There’s been a total of like two trans women to ever compete at the Olympics. Future women athletes may have their Olympic dreams crushed but hey at least Pat Mcafee won’t have to dedicate an entire episode to transvestigating Olympians in 2028 so who really wins. The fact that this has been a constant years long attack specifically on trans women really shows this has nothing to do with safety and fairness but everything to do with bigotry and misogyny.
So they are making ALL women have to take a test in order to compete? Do the men have to be subjected to this testing?
This is so frustrating as a trans woman, the VAST majority of us want nothing to do with sports but culture war issues like this taint the perception of trans people, and adds fuel to the fire of systemically stripping us of our rights.
It’s also banning many intersex women, this change is actually more geared at them, trans women have been de facto banned already.
I just feel if it were that unfair we’d see more trans athletes perform in at higher levels? I understand it’s culturally challenging them to participate anyway but I don’t think we have enough evidence to say they’re far better at athletics than cis people
Heinous bigotry and for what? Trans athletes deserve to compete with everyone else. If you can qualify at internationally competitive standards while taking medication that literally lowers your testosterone and reduces your muscle development I’m pretty sure you’re as qualified as anyone else. And the fact that this is only about trans women and not trans men just goes to show it’s all about discrimination.
This is going to backfire very quickly, too. Many athletes who excel at this level of competition have unique conditions (remember article after article about the shape of Michael Phelps’s hands?). This is going to end up disqualifying countless cis women who had no idea there was anything unusual about their genetic makeup.
Why shouldn’t female sports only be open to females?
If anyone wants to know the history of “genetic regulation” in the Olympics, NPR did a wonderful podcast series called “Tested” that covers the issues that arise when putting biological restrictions on what constitutes a woman.
I strongly recommend giving it a listen. It’s very illuminating and explains the historical regulations that used to be put in place to bar women from competing in the Olympics at all. Spoiler alert: it’s misogyny. This is just an extension of that.
Trans women had been allowed to compete since 2004 and didn’t win a medal.
Handful of olympic women are going to find out they’re intersex
Do the male athletes get to have their genetic information sampled and stored in some database too?
Thank god we as a society putting a disproportionate amount of focus on real issues like making sure trans people don’t feel safe so that I can stay outraged over bullshit rather than worry about the pedophile cabal that’s destroying the planet.
If I didn’t have marginalized groups to scapegoat and get worked into a frenzy over, I might have to contend with *real* issues. No one wants that.
Edit: adding /s because even though I think that’s clear, some comments seem like they’d unironically agree and I don’t want to be lumped in with them.
As a non-binary person, I just want a final decision to be made so this whole argumentative discussion can end.
There is hardly any impact to my life if trans/NB people can compete in professional sports, but there’s a lot of negative impact from being the subject of this debate and constantly being made to pick a side and defend myself.
All I’m hearing is that the Olympic Committee has agreed to allow trans men to compete untethered in the BiOLOgiCaL WoMaN leagues?
Why do we separate sports by gender/sex?
I’m a woman with XX chromosomes who happens to produce a little more testosterone on average because of PCOS. Technically that’s a SMALL advantage in building muscle. Should biological women with PCOS be banned because of that?? What about women with adrenal issues?
This decision is unscientific and completely political. Just another instance of people using science incorrectly to make decisions to hurt people.
Edit: I’m not Trans, have never really interacted with the community nor have a stake in it. I just think it’s a bad precedent to go after minorities and ESPECIALLY to do it for pseudo-scientific reasons. We know where that goes.
Bullshit
Looks like I’m banning the Olympics from my TV now.
Why stop there? We need to prevent all real or perceived biological advantages at all in sports. Everyone must be the same height and weight, everyone must have virtually identical hormone levels, everyone must practice essentially the exact same amount.
I saw that freak of nature Michael Phelps win gold medals despite the clear unfair advantages he had over other swimmers and it made me sick. His body is basically built for swimming! He should’ve been in his own separate division with other mermen.
So we’re also going to be screening for and banning anyone else whose genes give them an unfair advantage, right? Right?
this may be controversial, but this at least DOES affirm that trans women are women. science, anatomy, and biology do play a part in athleticism and i think this issue is very nuanced. that being said, making this call does assert that there are WOMEN who happen to be trans. it may be an overblown call, but it does take a step towards normalizing the existence of trans people. also, i think we could all benefit from looking at these issues with a less “color blind” lens. we can acknowledge the potential differences between cis and trans women without demonizing or devaluing either. just my two cents!
All it’s going to take is one sore loser who suggests that her opponent is biologically male to see a push for stricter and more invasive testing of female athletes.
Because it has been such an issue? What a fucking joke.
Am I reading this right? They’re going to test *all* women on the outside chance that one person lies about being trans?
So they invested time and money into developing and popularizing a test to find members of a marginalized community… no way that’ll be used for other purposes. I wonder what a certain German man would have done with a test that can determine someone belongs to a certain community.
So frustrating because trans women athletes are such a small proportion of the competitions AND they have very rarely actually excelled all that much, so this is just yet another step in the culture war against trans people. Ugh.
Come on people, I’m a liberal but trans and intersex people should have their own division to keep things fair.