Olympics bans transgender women from female category
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The International Olympic Committee said Wednesday it is banning transgender women from competing in the female category, while also instituting DNA-based sex testing for all female athletes.
Why it matters: The move revives sex testing, which was previously dropped in part due to the emotional distress inflicted upon female athletes who discovered their biological makeup was actually more complicated than they were aware of.
Driving the news:
- The IOC announced that, starting with the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, all athletes competing in the female category will need to have a one-time genetic screening via a cheek swab.
- The policy applies to all IOC events but is not designed to apply to recreational sports, the organization said.
What they're saying: "As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition," IOC President Kirsty Coventry said in a statement. "The policy that we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts."
Between the lines: Under its prior policy, the inclusion of transgender athletes was left to each sport's international governing body to determine policy based on that sport's particular concerns.
- Research on whether transgender athletes continue to have an advantage after a significant period of cross-gender hormones has been mixed, with one recent study finding no clear edge for trans women.
- Chromosome-based sex testing, meanwhile, has come with its own set of problems and has been banned in some countries and was discontinued by the Olympics ahead of the 2000 games in Sydney.
- Biological sex is more complicated, and no one test can conclusively declare someone male or female, as there are a number of intersex conditions that can influence whether one develops female reproductive organs, male reproductive organs, or both.
The big picture: The inclusion or exclusion of transgender women in sports has become a significant topic of discussion in recent years, despite instances of transgender athletes being rather rare.
- In the roughly two decades that transgender women were eligible to participate in the Olympics, there was only one openly transgender woman who competed at the games.
- Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, took part in the Tokyo Games but did not complete a successful lift.
- The United States banned transgender women from competing in female sports last year, following an executive order from President Trump. The U.S. had a trans woman as an alternate in Tokyo, the only known example of a transgender woman representing Team USA in the Olympics.
