The International Olympic Committee announced Thursday that it would restrict women’s sports to biological females, as determined by a genetic test.
The policy will go into effect for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games onwards.
The IOC adopted as the standard a test for the gene associated with the sex-determining region Y protein, also known as SRY. The SRY gene is responsible for the initiation of male sex determination.
“Eligibility for the female category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY gene,” the IOC press release notes.
“Based on scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development.”
“The scientific evidence is very clear: male chromosomes give performance advantages in sports that rely on strength, power or endurance,” IOC President Kristy Coventry said in a video included with the release.
“Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods,” the statement adds.
Transgender activists have insisted that men who identify as women should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
Critics have long argued, however, that women’s sports must be kept separate to allow women to compete on a level playing field, and that men enjoy biological advantages that undermine fairness in women’s sports.
A 2019 study in The Journal of Medical Ethics found that the IOC’s previous rules allowing men to compete in women’s sports created an “intolerable unfairness.”
“The recent International Olympic Committee (IOC) (2015) guidelines allow transwomen to compete in the women’s division if (amongst other things) their testosterone is held below 10 nmol/L. This is significantly higher than that of cis-women,” the researchers conclude. “Science demonstrates that high testosterone and other male physiology provides a performance advantage in sport suggesting that transwomen retain some of that advantage.”
Differences between male and female development begin in the womb and continue throughout life. As Duke Law School professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman testified, if the pro-transgender Equality Act allowed biological men to compete in women’s sports, “the very best women in the world would lose to literally thousands of boys and men, including thousands who would be considered second-tier.”
“This is the right decision—and a meaningful step forward,” Payton McNabb, a former high school women’s volleyball athlete who suffered a brain bleed after competing against a male at age 17, said in a statement on the IOC decision.
“For too long, there has been inconsistency and a lack of clarity around protecting the women’s category,” McNabb added. “We’re thankful to see the IOC take a clear, firm stance that prioritizes fairness, safety, and integrity for female athletes moving forward.”
In January, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two women’s sports cases—West Virginia v. P.B.J. and Little v. Hecox—where the American Civil Liberties Union, representing male athletes who claim to identify as women, is challenging the constitutionality of laws protecting women’s sports.
Matt Sharp, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal even lawyers on the transgender side know they are losing the issue.
“They’re starting to make the case, ‘Well, we’re really only talking about boys that … have been on puberty blockers or hormones or something, so that there is no sports advantage,’” Sharp explained.
