The International Olympic Committee has taken a step toward introducing a blanket ban on transgender women competing in female categories across all sports.
IOC president Kirsty Coventry, who campaigned on the issue, established a working group on protecting women’s sport. The IOC said the review is “continuing its discussions on this topic and no decisions have been taken yet”, but sources told BBC Sport that after a presentation by its medical director a ban is likely to be introduced in 2026.
The prospects for changes to rules on athletes with differences in sex development (DSD) are less clear.
Last week the IOC’s medical and scientific director, Dr Jane Thornton, briefed members as the organisation examines the details of a possible universal policy. As first reported by The Times, Thornton said early findings from a science-led review indicate athletes born male retain physiological advantages even after lowering testosterone, reinforcing expectations of a new rule. BBC Sport was told any blanket ban is unlikely before the 2026 Winter Olympics but could be implemented prior to the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Coventry, a seven-time Olympic medallist, told BBC Sport in March that the IOC must “play a leading role” and hinted at a major policy shift. Historically, the IOC has left sex eligibility rules to individual international federations; many have allowed transgender women to compete in female events if they reduce testosterone levels. After her election, Coventry said a working group composed of experts and federations would seek consensus and added that IOC members showed “overwhelming support” for protecting the female category.
The head of the International Paralympic Committee has said he opposes “blanket solutions” for transgender participation policies.
In recent years, several federations have barred athletes who experienced male puberty from elite female competition over concerns about fairness and safety, including World Aquatics and World Athletics. Trans rights campaigners argue such bans could breach human rights and stress inclusion should be prioritised. In the US, President Donald Trump signed an executive order this year preventing transgender women from competing in female categories and said it would apply to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, with plans to restrict visas for transgender athletes seeking to compete.
Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand became the first openly transgender woman to compete at the Olympics when selected for women’s weightlifting at Tokyo 2020; she failed to record a successful lift in the +87kg category and had previously competed in men’s events before coming out in 2013.
Thornton’s presentation also addressed approaches to athletes with DSD, a group of rare conditions where hormones, genes or reproductive organs blend male and female characteristics. Some people with DSD are born with external female genitalia but have functioning testes and are raised as female.
This year World Athletics and World Boxing introduced genetic sex screening, saying it is necessary to protect the integrity of women’s competition. Paris 2024 saw controversy when Algeria’s Imane Khelif won the women’s welterweight boxing gold, a year after being disqualified from the World Championships for reportedly failing a gender eligibility test. The IOC cleared Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting to compete; the IOC said competitors were eligible for the women’s division if their passports identified them as female. Both fighters said they were women who had always competed in the women’s division, and there was no suggestion they were transgender. Some reports noted the IBA said Khelif has XY chromosomes and speculated she might have a DSD like runner Caster Semenya, but the BBC could not confirm whether that is the case.
