The International Olympic Committee put the brakes on Monday, saying the body was poised to ban athletes born male from competing in women's Olympic events, saying “no decisions have been made yet.”
Report to London Times said the ban on transgender women competing in women's competitions would be implemented in early 2026 “following a science-based review of evidence of the ongoing physical benefits of being born male.”
The IOC insisted the report was premature but did not deny that a new policy would be adopted soon.
The spokesman confirmed that medical and scientific director Dr Jane Thornton briefed IOC members last week at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, of the initial findings of a working group studying the issue. However, the spokesperson said in a statement that “the working group continues to have discussions on this topic and no decisions have been made at this time. Additional information will be provided in due course.”
New IOC President Kirsty Coventry succeeded Thomas Bach in June and three months later formed a women's category protection working group, made up of experts as well as international federation representatives, to study the issue.
The findings and new policies could be announced immediately after the IOC session scheduled for February ahead of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Under Bach, the IOC refused to enforce a universal rule on transgender participation in the Olympics, and transgender athletes are still eligible to participate. The International Federation of each sport has the right to set its own rules.
However, in her first press conference since becoming IOC president, Coventry said she believed Olympic sports should end the current piecemeal approach to setting rules for transgender inclusion and instead implement policies that apply to most or all sports.
“We understand there will be differences depending on the sport,” she said. “But it was very clear to the participants that we must protect the female category, first and foremost, to ensure fairness.
“We must do this using a scientific approach and involving international federations that have done a lot of work in this area.”
Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports in US schools and said he intends to implement the policy at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The order directs the Secretary of State attempt to change IOC rules on transgender participation, and directs immigration officials to refuse to admit transgender women from other countries to participate in sports.
Representatives from the California Department of Education refused to obey with the order. However, Trump's announcement prompted the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee to change its rules and ban transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.
The most recent controversy over gender-based Olympic eligibility occurred last summer at the Paris Games, when boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria won the women's welterweight gold medal a year after she was disqualified from the world championships for reportedly failing a gender-eligibility test.
The IOC allowed Khelif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting to compete in the women's division because their passports indicated they were women. Yu-ting was banned by the suspended International Boxing Association. (IBA).
In an attempt to identify athletes who were raised as women but sometimes have the physical advantages of men (called Differences of Sexual Development (DSD)), international boxing this year introduced mandatory tests for female athletes to detect a gene on the Y chromosome that triggers the development of male characteristics.
Other sports have established a range of restrictions to prohibit or allow transgender athletes to compete as women. World Athletics, the international governing body for athletics, bans transgender athletes who have reached male puberty from competing. World Rugby bans transgender athletes from competing at the highest level. And World Aquatics allows transgender athletes who transition before age 12 to compete as women.
Very few transgender athletes took part in the Games. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard has become the first transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
“I don’t think we need to redo all the work that has been done – we can learn from the international federations and create a working group that will do this constantly and consistently,” Coventry said. “The main principle should be the protection of the female category.”
