The IOC restricts participation in the women’s category, exposing tensions in global sport

Starting in 2028, the Olympic body will apply a sex test to determine eligibility for the women’s category. The decision excludes trans women and most athletes with differences in sex development.

At the end of March, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that the women’s category in sports will be reserved for biological women starting in 2028, at the Los Angeles Games.

On this matter, IOC President Kirsty Coventry stated that the policy «follows the recommendations of medical experts» and added that at the Olympic Games even the smallest differences can decide a victory”.

The Committee’s president stated that it would not be fair to allow biological males to compete in the women’s category and that, in some sports, it would not be safe either.

Coventry also explained that eligibility will be determined through a «once-in-a-lifetime» sex test, which will prevent trans women and people with Differences of Sex Development (DSD) who have gone through male puberty from competing.

Criticism from the LGBTIQ+ community of the IOC’s new rules

Corporación Caribe Afirmativo, an organization that supports cases of violence and human rights involving the LGBTIQ+ community internationally, stated that the measure raises concerns not only for trans women but also for cisgender women who fall outside rigid biomedical parameters, with diverse sexual or hormonal development. The Committee’s decision “broadens the scope of exclusion and highlights the risks of establishing single, restrictive definitions of who can be recognized as a woman in sport,” they argue in an article.

“This announcement comes in an international context marked by an increase in restrictive regulations on the participation of trans people in sport,” Caribe Afirmativo adds. Other human rights organizations, specialists and athletes also questioned the measure, considering it discriminatory and based on reductionist criteria. They also warn that such policies reinforce stigma and may deepen violence against trans people.

LGBTIQ+ organizations warn that the rights of trans people are not up for debate and that any regulation in sport must be approached from a human rights perspective, based on unbiased scientific evidence and guaranteeing the dignity, equality and participation of all people.

The previous framework and the IOC’s new restrictions

Before this decision, the Olympic Committee left the rules on sex eligibility to the federations of each sport. Athletics, swimming, rowing and cycling had already imposed bans, and in other disciplines trans women were allowed to compete if they reduced their testosterone levels.

At the same time, the ban will also affect almost all athletes with DSD. This is a rare condition in which a person’s hormones, genes or reproductive organs combine male and female characteristics. The best-known case is that of Caster Semenya, two-time Olympic 800-meter champion.

However, the IOC’s new policy included as an exception complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), a rare condition that prevents a person from going through male puberty.

For her part, Payoshni Mitra, executive director of Humans of Sport, stated that “this kind of brutal language does not protect sport, it controls women’s bodies,” because it fuels suspicion, invites public scrutiny and endangers already vulnerable athletes, she added.
Along these lines, Eric Vilain, a geneticist at the University of California, Irvine, who advised the IOC for nearly a decade until 2017, questioned the scientific basis for this type of regulation and noted that the available evidence is far from conclusive.

Vilain warned that reducing the definition of sex to a single criterion, such as chromosomes, oversimplifies a complex biological phenomenon involving multiple variables. He also warned that there is no clear evidence that athletes with differences in sex development have a disproportionate advantage in all cases, which raises questions about the use of these arguments to justify regulatory decisions in sport.

During the opening of the 145th Session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Milan, the institution’s president, Kirsty Coventry, stressed that the Olympic Games have a responsibility to continue serving as an inspiring and unifying space in a global context marked by numerous divisions. Coventry reiterated that sport must remain in a neutral sphere so that all athletes, regardless of origin or background, can compete freely. However, human rights organizations maintain that these statements coexist with a policy that establishes restrictive criteria on who can compete, which strains the idea of neutrality that the body itself upholds as a principle.

Guillermo Whpei

President of Fundación para la Democracia