Olympic rings are pictured outdoors the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) throughout an Government Board assembly on the Olympic Home in Lausanne, Switzerland, March 26, 2026. — Reuters
KARACHI: The Worldwide Olympic Committee on Thursday accredited a brand new coverage proscribing eligibility for the ladies’s class on the Olympic Video games to organic females, introducing obligatory SRY gene screening starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The choice, endorsed by the IOC Government Board, will apply from the LA28 Video games onward and won’t be utilized retroactively, mentioned the organisation.
Below the coverage, eligibility for any feminine class occasion on the Olympics or different IOC competitions, together with each particular person and crew sports activities, will likely be decided by way of a one-time genetic take a look at for the SRY gene, a phase of DNA sometimes discovered on the Y chromosome and related to male intercourse improvement.
The IOC mentioned athletes who take a look at unfavourable for the SRY gene will likely be completely eligible to compete within the girls’s class. The screening, which will be performed through saliva, cheek swab or blood pattern, is meant to be carried out as soon as in an athlete’s lifetime except there’s cause to query the consequence.
Athletes who take a look at optimistic for the SRY gene won’t be eligible for girls’s occasions at IOC competitions, with restricted exceptions for these recognized with uncommon situations similar to Full Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS) or sure variations in intercourse improvement that don’t confer efficiency benefits linked to testosterone.
These athletes will stay eligible to compete in different classes, together with males’s occasions, blended competitions in designated male slots, or open classes the place relevant.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry mentioned the coverage is grounded in scientific proof and goals to make sure equity and security in elite competitors.
“As a former athlete, I passionately believe in the rights of all Olympians to take part in fair competition,” Coventry mentioned. “It would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category, and in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
She added that athletes have to be handled with dignity and respect, with correct schooling, counselling and medical help offered all through the method.
The IOC mentioned the coverage follows a evaluation performed between September 2024 and March 2026, together with consultations with medical, authorized and moral specialists, in addition to suggestions from greater than 1,100 athletes worldwide.
A working group established in 2025 concluded that male intercourse gives efficiency benefits in sports activities involving power, energy and endurance, and advisable organic intercourse as the idea for eligibility in girls’s competitors. The group additionally recognized SRY gene screening as probably the most correct and least intrusive technique at the moment out there.
The coverage is meant for adoption by worldwide federations and different sports activities governing our bodies when setting eligibility guidelines for IOC occasions. It replaces earlier IOC steerage on gender identification and intercourse variations.
The IOC emphasised that the brand new guidelines don’t apply to grassroots or leisure sports activities packages and are restricted to elite-level competitors beneath its jurisdiction.
Officers mentioned the framework additionally prioritises athlete privateness, psychological well being and safeguarding, calling on nationwide federations and Olympic committees to supply schooling and help whereas sustaining confidentiality all through the screening course of.
