The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will enact a new policy that will prohibit transgender female athletes from competing against biological women, according to multiple reports. The policy is reportedly set to cover those with differences of sex development (DSD).
The IOC’s current policy leaves it up to each individual sport’s governing body to make policies governing transgender athletes. But as the IOC changed its leadership, The Times of London reported on Monday that its policies are set to change as well.IOC President Kirsty Coventry called for “protecting” the women’s category in June and there was “overwhelming support” from IOC members to do the same.
“We understand that there’ll be differences depending on the sport … but it was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost to ensure fairness,” Coventry said at the time.
“But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area.”
The upcoming policy switch is likely to be announced at the IOC session in February before the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy and comes after a presentation from Dr. Jane Thornton, the IOC’s medical and scientific director, last week, according to The Times.Thornton’s presentation reportedly showed there were physical advantages in males, including those who took treatments to reduce testosterone levels. A source told the paper that the presentation was “very scientific” and unemotional.
“An update was given by the IOC’s Director of Health, Medicine and Science to the IOC Members last week during the IOC commission meetings,” an IOC spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The working group is continuing its discussions on this topic and no decisions have been taken yet. Further information will be provided in due course.”Athletes with DSD – those who were raised female but born with male traits – are set to be covered under the new policy, according to The Times. Olympic boxing had two major controversies over athletes who previously failed gender tests.
Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting won gold medals in their respective weight classes in the women’s division despite major uproar. Khelif has insisted that they were female. Lin has not commented on the controversy since the Olympics were finished.
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