KARACHI: The Worldwide Olympic Committee on Thursday permitted a brand new coverage proscribing eligibility for the ladies’s class on the Olympic Video games to organic females, introducing necessary SRY gene screening starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The choice, endorsed by the IOC Government Board, will apply from the LA28 Video games onward and won’t be utilized retroactively, mentioned the organisation.
Beneath the coverage, eligibility for any feminine class occasion on the Olympics or different IOC competitions, together with each particular person and group sports activities, can be decided by way of a one-time genetic check for the SRY gene, a phase of DNA usually discovered on the Y chromosome and related to male intercourse growth.
The IOC mentioned athletes who check unfavorable for the SRY gene can be completely eligible to compete within the ladies’s class. The screening, which will be carried out by way of saliva, cheek swab or blood pattern, is meant to be carried out as soon as in an athlete’s lifetime except there may be cause to query the outcome.
Athletes who check optimistic for the SRY gene is not going to be eligible for ladies’s occasions at IOC competitions, with restricted exceptions for these recognized with uncommon circumstances corresponding to Full Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (CAIS) or sure variations in intercourse growth that don’t confer efficiency benefits linked to testosterone.
These athletes will stay eligible to compete in different classes, together with males’s occasions, blended competitions in designated male slots, or open classes the place relevant.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry mentioned the coverage is grounded in scientific proof and goals to make sure equity and security in elite competitors.
“As a former athlete, I passionately consider within the rights of all Olympians to participate in honest competitors,” Coventry mentioned. “It will not be honest for organic males to compete within the feminine class, and in some sports activities it will merely not be secure.”
She added that athletes should be handled with dignity and respect, with correct schooling, counselling and medical help supplied all through the method.
The IOC mentioned the coverage follows a assessment carried out between September 2024 and March 2026, together with consultations with medical, authorized and moral specialists, in addition to suggestions from greater than 1,100 athletes worldwide.
A working group established in 2025 concluded that male intercourse offers efficiency benefits in sports activities involving energy, energy and endurance, and really useful organic intercourse as the premise for eligibility in ladies’s competitors. The group additionally recognized SRY gene screening as essentially the most correct and least intrusive technique at present out there.
The coverage is meant for adoption by worldwide federations and different sports activities governing our bodies when setting eligibility guidelines for IOC occasions. It replaces earlier IOC steerage on gender identification and intercourse variations.
The IOC emphasised that the brand new guidelines don’t apply to grassroots or leisure sports activities packages and are restricted to elite-level competitors beneath its jurisdiction.
Officers mentioned the framework additionally prioritises athlete privateness, psychological well being and safeguarding, calling on nationwide federations and Olympic committees to supply schooling and help whereas sustaining confidentiality all through the screening course of.
