The IOC announced the ban on Thursday after its executives voted to adopt the new policy. The ruling now means transgender women, as well as women with select rare medical conditions, are no longer eligible to compete in female categories, effective from the 2028 LA games.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has moved to ban transgender women from female events, beginning with the next summer Olympic games, scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in the United States in July 2028.
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The decision comes after IOC executives approved on Thursday a new policy on the “Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport” following calls for reforms after the Paris summer games in 2024 and the recent Milano-Cortina winter games just weeks ago.
The calls were however speculative, as many took to social media platforms, accusing various female athletes, most notably Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, of abusing the system to gain an advantage.
“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females,” the International Olympic Committee said, to be determined by a mandatory gene test once in an athlete's career.
Policy to also affect women with medical conditions
It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, though weightlifter Laurel Hubbard did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal.
The eligibility policy that will apply from the LA Olympics in July 2028 “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,” the IOC said.
“It is not retroactive and does not apply to any grassroots or recreational sports programs,” said the IOC, whose Olympic Charter states that access to play sport is a human right.
After an executive board meeting, the IOC published a 10-page policy document that also restricts female athletes such as two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya with medical conditions known as differences in sex development, or DSD.
“We know that this topic is sensitive,” said IOC President Kirsty Coventry in an online news conference to explain the policy.
Decision rooted in 'biological research'
Coventry and the IOC have wanted a clear policy instead of continuing to advise sports’ governing bodies who previously have drafted their own rules.
“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in swimming, said in a statement.
“So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”
The IOC document details its research that being born male gives physical advantages that a working group of experts believes are retained.
"Males experience three significant testosterone peaks: In utero, in mini-puberty of infancy and beginning in adolescent puberty through adulthood," the document said.
It added this gives males “individual sex-based performance advantages in sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance.”
Trump praises IOC decision
US President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of the policy, hailed the IOC over its decision in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“Congratulations to the International Olympic Committee on their decision to ban Men from Women’s Sports,” he wrote. “This is only happening because of my powerful Executive Order, standing up for Women and Girls!”
Trump signed an executive order in February last year, early into his second presidency, banning transgender athletes from competing in female sports categories within the United States.
The US president had previously accused “the woke left” of dismissing “basic biology” to advance their ideology and said women should be protected from men trying to cheat.
He also said he had ordered then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to “deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes.”
Possible appeals?
The IOC policy can — and likely will — be challenged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the Olympic body's Swiss home city Lausanne, perhaps by an athlete acting alone.
Track athletes Dutee Chand of India and Caster Semenya of South Africa challenged previous versions of their sport's eligibility rules at the court.
Any potential appeal would examine science underpinning IOC research which was not published on Thursday. A case could occupy much of the near-28 months until the Los Angeles Olympic games open.