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The International Olympic Committee is reportedly preparing to ban transgender women from competing in all female-designated sports, according to a report by the U.K. newspaper The Times.
At present, each sport’s international federation sets its own rules on transgender eligibility, with some requiring athletes to undergo hormone therapy for a specific period before competing in the female category.
But IOC President Kirsty Coventry, elected earlier this year, has called for consistent standards across all sports. After taking office in June, she created four working groups to address key issues facing the IOC, including one focused on protecting women’s sports.
The change, which will reportedly be officially announced next year, was made after the IOC carried out a science-based review of the physical advantages of people assigned male at birth.
The Times reported that Dr. Jane Thornton, the IOC’s director of health, medicine, and science, briefed colleagues on the review’s findings. A former world rowing champion, Thornton said scientific evidence indicates that anyone who has undergone male puberty retains permanent physical advantages over females that cannot be fully offset by hormone treatment.
The report also concluded that athletes with Disorders of Sexual Development (DSD) — a group of conditions in which a person develops traits of both sexes — have measurable advantages over cisgender female athletes.
Former Olympic track star Caster Semenya — who recently withdrew her challenge to an international competition ban after refusing to take medication to lower her testosterone levels, despite a European Court of Human Rights ruling that she was discriminated against– is among several athletes with DSD.
An IOC spokesperson confirmed to The Athletic that Thornton spoke to members last week but said the working group is still discussing the issue and no final decisions have been made.
However, two senior IOC sources, speaking anonymously, told the outlet the ban on transgender athletes and those with DSD is almost certain to be imposed. Both described the change in eligibility rules as long overdue.
The participation of transgender and DSD athletes became a flashpoint during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris after two boxers — Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan — won gold medals despite having been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for allegedly failing gender eligibility tests.
Both boxers were raised as and identify as women, and there is no evidence that either is transgender. However, they may have higher testosterone levels linked to DSD, a condition neither has been diagnosed with. Questions about their eligibility and perceived advantages over other competitors fueled renewed calls for a categorical ban on transgender athletes in women’s competitions.
It remains unclear whether the ban will take effect before the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. The Times reported that the IOC could unveil the policy during its 145th Session in Milan, just days before the Games begin.
However, the ban is expected to be fully in place by the time Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics. Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring transgender women from women’s sports and threatening to withhold federal funding from schools, universities, and states that refuse to comply.
As part of that order, Trump directed the State Department to review the visas of foreign athletes entering the United States to ensure they were not assigned male at birth. The department has since said it will impose permanent visa bans on any transgender individuals — not just athletes — whose gender marker on their application does not match their assigned sex at birth.
To date, only one openly transgender woman has competed in the Olympics: New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, who qualified for the 2021 Tokyo Games but failed to complete a successful lift.
In a heated October 9 debate in Virginia’s governor’s race, Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears defended her belief that treating LGBTQ people differently from heterosexual or cisgender individuals does not amount to discrimination.
Earle-Sears, who trails in most public polls, used the debate as a last-ditch attempt to paint former Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger as extreme, out of touch, or untrustworthy. She pressed Spanberger on issues like transgender participation in sports and restroom access. She attacked her for not calling on Democratic attorney general nominee Jay Jones to withdraw after his comments appeared to endorse political violence.
A 14-year-old eighth-grade student in Arizona was forcibly removed from boys' basketball tryouts because school district officials refuse to recognize him as a boy due to an error on his original birth certificate.
Laker Jackson attends Eastmark High School, a grades 7-12 campus in Mesa, Arizona, and had spent a year training to make the basketball team. But district officials refused to treat the cisgender teen as a boy because the gender marker on his original birth certificate, used during enrollment, lists his sex as female.
The mix-up dates back 14 years, when hospital staff mistakenly listed Laker as female on his birth certificate. His parents, who have six children, say they never noticed the error until enrolling him at Eastmark last year.
Elon Musk has waded into the Virginia governor's race to attack Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger, accusing her of "trying to weasel out" of a question about transgender students accessing bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. Musk shared a post on X highlighting Spanberger's response to WJLA reporter Nick Minock, who asked whether she supports "biological males who say they're women using women's locker rooms and bathrooms and competing in women's sports."
Spanberger stumbled in her response, noting that any attempt by a future Virginia governor or the Trump administration to impose a bathroom ban could run afoul of a 2020 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision allowing transgender students in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.
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