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Transgender women banned from Olympic female events
AP • March 27th, 2026 6:00 am
Transgender women will not be allowed to compete in female events at the Olympics, says the IOC | Photo: AP
Olympic chiefs have announced that transgender women will be banned from competing in female competitions from the 2028 Games onwards.
Eligibility for any female category at the Games will now be limited to biological women, with an athlete's status determined by a one-time gene-screening process, the International Olympic Committee announced on Thursday (Friday NZT).
The new eligibility policy, pushed for by IOC chief Kirsty Coventry who has made it her aim "to protect the female category" at the Games, aligns with US President Donald Trump's executive order on women's sports ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry wants to "protect the female category" at Olympics | Photo: EPA
"Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening," the International Olympic Committee said on Thursday.
"At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat," Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in swimming, said in a statement.
"So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category."
The eligibility policy that will apply from the LA Olympics in July 2028 "protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category", the IOC added, while saying it didn't apply to any grassroots or recreational sports.
After an executive board meeting, the IOC published a 10-page policy document which also restricts female athletes such as two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya with medical conditions known as differences in sex development, or DSD.
The IOC and its president, Kirsty Coventry, have wanted a clear policy instead of continuing to advise sports governing bodies who previously have drafted their own rules.
Coventry set up a review of "protecting the female category" as one of her first big decisions last June as the first woman to lead the Olympic body in its 132-year history.
Before the 2024 Paris Olympics, three top-tier sports — track and field, swimming and cycling — had already passed rules excluding transgender women who had been through male puberty.
The IOC document details its research that being born male gives physical advantages that are retained.
"Males experience three significant testosterone peaks: in utero, in mini-puberty of infancy and beginning in adolescent puberty through adulthood," the document said.
It added this gives males "individual sex-based performance advantages in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance."
