Claiming it is for “fairness”, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released a new policy to ban transgender women from competing in female categories.
The Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport and Guiding Considerations for International Federations and Sports Governing Bodies stipulates that eligibility for the “female category” is to be determined in the first instance by SRY gene screening, which will detect the absence or presence of the SRY gene.
No athlete with an SRY-positive screen is eligible for competition in the female category at an IOC event.
The IOC considers the presence of the SRY gene as “fixed throughout life”, and represents “highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development”.
The IOC also considers that SRY gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is “unintrusive compared to other possible methods”. And yet athletes who screen negative for the SRY gene permanently satisfy this policy’s eligibility criteria for competition in the female category.
Unless there is reason to believe that a negative reading is in error, this will be a once-in-a-lifetime test.
The “rare exception”: Athletes with a diagnosis of Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS) or other rare differences/disorders in sex development (DSDs) who do not benefit from the anabolic and/or performance-enhancing effects of testosterone.
Athletes with an SRY-positive screen, including XY transgender and androgen-sensitive XY-DSD athletes, will still be included in all other classifications for which they qualify. For example, they are eligible for any male category, including in a designated male slot within any mixed category, and any open category, or in sports and events that do not classify athletes by sex.
The policy will apply for the LA28 Olympic Games onwards, and is not retroactive.
