The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced its new policy concerning the admission criteria for the female categories of the Games, all now barred to transgender women. To prove their biological sex, athletes will have to produce a genetic test.
No transgender women will be able to participate in the women’s competitions of the Los Angeles Games, and this will not be solely because of Donald Trump. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced this Thursday, March 26, “a new policy on protecting the female category in Olympic sport”, which can be summarized in two points: transgender women are excluded, and all female athletes will have to undergo screening confirming their biological sex. These new rules, the institution notes, will take effect “as of the LA28 Olympic Games”.
Since 2021, the IOC delegated to the international federations of each discipline the task of determining the conditions for access to women’s sports competitions. But faced with recurring controversies, a working group was charged “to examine the scientific, medical and legal evolutions achieved since 2021”. The conclusion delivered by Kirsty Leigh Coventry, Zimbabwean Olympic swimming champion and the first woman elected to the IOC presidency in June 2025: “The scientific evidence is very clear. Male chromosomes confer advantages in terms of performance in sports that require strength, endurance or power.”
A mandatory test for women
“Any women’s event (…) is now reserved for individuals of biological female sex”, thus decided the IOC leadership. To police the athletes, the Games organization decided to “test for the presence of the SRY gene, a segment of DNA almost always present on the Y chromosome”, the chromosomal marker of biological masculinity. A screening “less intrusive”, assures the institution in the 13-page document detailing its new policy, because it is done “by saliva, buccal or blood sample” and “need only be performed once in the athlete’s life”.
The IOC has previously used chromosomal tests, from 1968 to 1996, intended to prevent men from passing as women. These were abandoned after the Atlanta Games, in the United States, where eight athletes were disqualified and then reinstated due to this screening, already contested by scientists.
France’s Opposition
France, through Sports Minister Marina Ferrari, expressed its “great concern” after the IOC’s announcement, deploring “a step backward” as well as a “reductive and potentially stigmatizing” approach to femininity. “We oppose a generalization of genetic tests that raises numerous ethical, legal and medical questions”, the minister said, announcing the establishment of a “national observatory (…) intended to formulate recommendations to ensure sport that is both fair, inclusive and respectful of human rights”.
Aware that countries like France ban the SRY test for bioethical reasons, the IOC has thought of everything, inviting athletes to travel: “Athletes living in countries where it is not allowed can legally get tested elsewhere.” In case of a positive test, the IOC also offers two options to the affected athletes: register in the masculine category, or in “any sport that does not classify athletes by sex”. There is only one such option at the Summer Olympic Games: equestrianism.
