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Olympic women’s sport to be limited to biological females

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was reintroducing testing for gender to determine eligibility to compete in the female category, preventing transgender…

By Samantha Johnson / March 26, 2026

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Thursday it was reintroducing testing for gender to determine eligibility to compete in the female category, preventing transgender women from competing.

The screening will mean Olympic women’s sports at the 2028 Los Angeles Games will be limited to biological females, which would also rule out those with differences in sexual development (DSD) from competing.

The IOC is abandoning rules it brought in in 2021 which allowed individual federations to decide their own policy and implementing a policy across all sports.

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“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, determined on the basis of a one-time SRY gene screening,” the IOC said in a statement.

The test will be carried out through a saliva sample, cheek swab or blood sample.

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IOC president Kirsty Coventry said: “The policy we have announced is based on science and has been led by medical experts.

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