The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina will take place from February 6 to 22 in Italy. They feature 16 disciplines, including luge, curling, ski jumping, etc., and 96 countries. This year, more than 3,500 athletes will participate in the Olympic Games, and among them is the first openly transgender athlete at the Winter Olympics: Elis Lundholm.
Elis Lundholm, first openly transgender man at the Winter Olympics
Elis Lundholm is a 23-year-old Swedish moguls and freestyle skier who is preparing to compete at the Winter Olympics. He is not among the medal favorites, having never finished higher than eighteenth place in a World Cup as of December 2025.
However, his participation raises complex questions about the recognition of transgender people in sport. Indeed, Lundholm competes in the “women” category in the moguls discipline.
This decision is explained by the fact that he has not undergone a medical transition*. Lundholm competes in the gender category assigned at birth since the Swedish Olympic Committee considers that sporting equity is maintained without hormonal or surgical intervention.
Elis Lundholm told Swedish television SVT:
“I’ve come out and I identify as a man. But I participate in the women’s competitions because they have the same prerequisites as me. And it’s OK for everyone.”
Medical transition: what does it involve?
Medical transition is only one form of transition among others, and it is neither mandatory nor automatic. It is defined by medical care aimed at aligning the body with the person’s identity; it may involve taking hormones or surgery.
The question of hormones in elite sport
Elis Lundholm’s participation highlights, more generally, questions related to hormonal and biological criteria that come into play in sports competitions.
Not long ago, boxer Imane Khelif was the target of online smear campaigns during Paris 2024. She was accused of cheating for competing in the women’s category in her discipline because her hormonal level was too “masculine”; in other words, she exhibited a testosterone surplus. Yet, she recently justified herself to the newspaper L’Équipe. She carries the SRY gene, a gene that would naturally increase testosterone levels.
These discussions mark an ambiguity about the definitions of “female” and “male” gender concepts. Indeed, gender categories appear highly porous and their definitions inconsistent. For example, is it enough to define masculinity by testosterone levels when there are pathologies that naturally yield higher testosterone levels for people born female?
A biological boundary not as clear as it seems
Sport divides its disciplines into male and female categories to preserve a supposed sporting equity, justifying this separation by biological differences. The problem is that sports institutions conceive gender as a binary, perfect, and indisputable boundary, with women on one side and men on the other.
Yet, the criteria cited reveal several limitations:
- Chromosomes: it is impossible to define a person’s gender based on their chromosomes since there can be XX and XY chromosomes within a single person.
- Hormone levels: it is impossible to define gender by hormone levels, because all individuals possess the same hormones and these levels vary greatly throughout life (notably in childhood, adolescence, during pregnancy, after menopause, and after andropause).
- Anatomy : there are intersex people (between 1 and 4% of the population); thus gender cannot be defined by organs.
- Genetics: genes cannot define a person’s gender. For example, the SRY gene (generally associated with male individuals) does not dictate gender since it can be found in all individuals and be active or not.
Finally, it becomes clear that the strict categories of “man” and “woman” rest on no absolute biological definition. Whether it is genetics, chromosomes, hormone levels or anatomy, individuals cannot be categorized given the great diversity. Binarity is a simplified social construct, not a scientific reality.
Thus, competitive sport, which based its model on this division in an attempt to guarantee equity, finds itself facing its own contradictions. Sporting institutions should not create categories based on gender since gender is not defined by a universal biological marker. Ultimately, sports institutions often end up with arbitrary and discriminatory rules that exclude not only transgender athletes but also intersex people or certain cisgender women with natural variations.
Ultimately, perhaps it is time to rethink new categories based on directly physiological or biometric criteria. This would allow true inclusivity and respect for the diversity of bodies and identities. Thus, Elis Lundholm could compete in a category suited to his physiology, and there would be no inconsistency between his gender and the category in which he competes.
