The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is preparing to ban transgender women from competing in female categories across all Olympic sports following a “scientific review” on physical advantages linked to male puberty, The Times reported.
According to the British daily on Monday, the new policy, expected to be announced early next year under IOC President Kirsty Coventry, follows findings that the physical benefits of being born male “remain even after testosterone suppression.”
The review was presented last week in Lausanne, Switzerland by Dr. Jane Thornton, a Canadian sports medicine physician, the IOC’s medical and scientific director and a former Olympic rower.
“It was a very scientific, factual and unemotional presentation which quite clearly laid out the evidence,” one source familiar with the meeting told The Times, adding that feedback from IOC members was “hugely positive.”
The upcoming rules would replace the IOC’s previous guidance allowing transgender athletes to compete with reduced testosterone levels, a framework that left eligibility decisions to individual sports.
Coventry, a former Olympic swimmer from Zimbabwe who took office this year, has said the committee’s approach aims to “place emphasis on the protection of the female category” while maintaining a “scientific approach” in coordination with international federations.
Olympics in the eye of a storm
The debate over transgender eligibility has been highly visible in recent Olympic competitions.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Italian boxer Angela Carini abandoned her bout after 46 seconds against Algeria’s Imane Khelif, who had been disqualified from last year’s women’s world championships for failing gender eligibility tests.
Carini said she feared for her safety after being struck hard and broke down in tears following the fight, while Khelif maintained she was competing “for gold.” The IOC confirmed both Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting complied with its entry regulations despite prior disqualifications.
The policy is also expected to address athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) following debates surrounding competitors such as Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, who won gold medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics despite prior eligibility disputes.
Similar debates have occurred in other sports.
World Aquatics and World Athletics have banned transgender women from female competition, and in February, former US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from grassroots, school, and university sport in America, while also threatening to deny visas to transgender athletes aiming for the 2028 Olympics.
Only one openly transgender woman, New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, has ever competed at an Olympics, failing to record a successful lift at Tokyo 2020.
An announcement could come as early as February, during an IOC session before the Milan-Cortina Winter Games, pending final legal review of the new rules.
