The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced a new eligibility policy on Thursday that excludes transgender women from competing in women’s events.
The move aligns the organization’s standards with a U.S. executive order issued by President Donald Trump ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Under the new regulations, eligibility for female categories in all IOC-sanctioned individual and team sports is now strictly limited to biological females.
This status will be verified through a mandatory gene test conducted once in an athlete’s career.
The IOC stated the policy aims to protect the fairness, safety and integrity of female competition.
The decision follows a review led by IOC President Kirsty Coventry, who took office last year as the first woman to lead the committee.
The updated policy relies on research indicating that biological males retain physical advantages in strength, power, and endurance.
Specifically, the IOC cited testosterone peaks during development as the basis for these performance differences.
Mandatory screening will look for the SRY gene, which is typically found on the Y chromosome.
This method is already utilized by several governing bodies in sports such as skiing, boxing, and track and field.
The ruling also tightens restrictions on athletes with differences in sex development (DSD).
This impacts competitors like two-time Olympic champion Caster Semenya, who has natural testosterone levels higher than the typical female range.
In February 2025, President Trump signed the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order.
The order threatened to withhold federal funds from organizations and deny visas to athletes who do not comply with biological sex-based eligibility.
The IOC confirmed the policy is not retroactive and will not apply to grassroots or recreational sports programs.
Access to sport remains a human right under the Olympic Charter, the committee noted.
No transgender women competed in the 2024 Paris Summer Games.
However, the issue became a central theme in last year's IOC election following controversies regarding gender eligibility in women's boxing.
World Boxing recently confirmed that Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting passed the required gene test.
This allows her to continue competing under the new framework established for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics.