IOC bans transgender women from Olympic women's events in policy aligned with Trump

The International Olympic Committee has announced that transgender women will be banned from competing in women's events at the Olympics, with the policy taking effect from the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The IOC said: "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." Eligibility will be determined by a one-time SRY gene screening.

The policy aligns with US President Donald Trump's executive order on women's sports, signed in February last year, which pledged to deny visas to some athletes attempting to compete at the LA Olympics and threatened to withdraw federal funding from organisations that allowed transgender athletes to take part in women's sports.

The new policy also restricts female athletes with medical conditions known as differences in sex development, or DSD, including two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya. Critics have raised concerns that the policy's scope extends well beyond transgender athletes.

Sports historian and kinesiology professor Jaime Schultz told NPR: "If a woman suspects that she might not pass this screening, she might be deterred from pursuing sport altogether. It doesn't just affect the people that are being tested, but it affects all women athletes." Schultz also noted that the genetic screening test alone can cost $250, raising questions about who bears that cost and whether cash-strapped countries might send fewer women athletes as a result.

It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are currently competing at an Olympic level. No trans woman competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games. Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard competed at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal.

Human rights groups and advocacy organisations condemned the announcement ahead of its publication, describing it as "an astounding rollback on gender equality" that would "set women's sport back 30 years." Olympic medalist Francine Niyonsaba said in a statement: "The IOC must not turn its back on women and girls of color."

IOC President Kirsty Coventry, the first woman to lead the organisation in its 132-year history, framed the policy as protecting the integrity of women's sport, acknowledging it was "very sensitive."