In a significant policy shift, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Thursday that only biological female athletes will be allowed to compete in women’s events at the Olympic Games under a new rule mandating a one-time gene-screening test.
As part of what it described as an effort to protect the female category, the IOC announced that all athletes seeking to qualify for or compete in women’s events at the Games will now be required to undergo testing for the SRY (Sex-determining region Y protein) gene to determine eligibility.
In a statement, the organization said the presence of the SRY gene remains fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development.
Move marks shift toward a unified Olympic standard
The decision marks a major policy change for the IOC, which had long declined to impose a universal rule on transgender participation in the Olympics.
In 2021, the committee instead directed international sports federations to develop their own eligibility guidelines, a fragmented approach that contributed to a patchwork of regulations and several major controversies.
That position changed under IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who took office in June last year and quickly signaled that the organization would pursue a uniform framework for female elite sport.
“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry said in the IOC statement. “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.”
Rule will not apply retroactively
The IOC said the new rules will not have retroactive effect and will not affect grassroots or amateur sports. Until Thursday’s announcement, transgender athletes were allowed to compete at the Olympics once cleared by their respective international federations.
Only a handful of openly transgender athletes have competed at the Games. One of the most notable cases was New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category from that assigned at birth when she took part in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Olympic Committee decision on Women’s events comes amid broader political debate
The IOC announcement comes as debate over transgender participation in women’s sports continues internationally. In the United States, President Donald Trump last year banned transgender athletes from competing in school, college, and professional women’s sports.
Trump, who signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order in February 2025, has also said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete at the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.
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