The International Olympic Committee said on Thursday that transgender athletes are excluded from participating in women’s events after it agreed to a new eligibility policy.
The new policy aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “keep men out of women’s sports,” signed at the beginning of February ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time [Sex-determining Region Y] gene screening,” the IOC said. The new policy is expected to be in effect in time for the Los Angeles Games.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared the IOC announcement on X and credited Trump’s executive order for the change.
“You cannot change your sex,” Leavitt wrote. “President Trump’s Executive Order protecting women’s sports made this happen!”
The decision marks a significant departure from the IOC’s previous approach, which allowed individual sports federations to set their own rules on transgender participation.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee banned transgender athletes shortly after Trump signed the executive order barring them from competing in women’s sports last year.
The debate is not new to the Olympic movement, which has grappled with how to define eligibility in women’s sports for decades. Sex verification testing dates back to the mid-20th century, with critics saying the practice is open to inaccuracies and ethical concerns.
These tensions were brought into focus during the 2024 Paris Olympics. Two competitors in the women’s boxing event from Algeria and Taiwan became central figures in a global controversy after their eligibility was questioned, despite both having competed under IOC rules at the time.
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Algerian gold medalist Imane Khelif faced widespread criticism, with viewers questioning the boxer’s sex after winning gold. The International Boxing Association, an organization not involved in the Olympics, had disqualified Khelif from its 2023 world championship as the boxer was found to have “competitive advantages over other female competitors.”
Subsequent rule changes in boxing introduced genetic testing for eligibility, including screening for Y chromosome material. The Y chromosome is typically present in those assigned male at birth and absent in those assigned female, though intersex people can have a mixture of X and Y sex chromosomes that do not fall under the typical XY or XX sex determinations.
