International Olympic Committee Bans Transgender Athletes From Competing In Women’s Events

South Africa’s Caster Semenya (Photo credit: Dave Thompson/PA Wire URN:11501845)

The International Olympics Committee has aligned itself with President Donald Trump’s stance on transgender athletes by banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports at the 2028 Los Angeles games.

The IOC announced Thursday that transgender women athletes will be rooted out by a “mandatory gene test once in an athlete’s career,” the Associated Press reported.

“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 IOC said in a statement.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry said, “It is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”

It’s unclear how many transgender women have been competing in women’s events at the Olympic level, the Associated Press reported.

Before the announcement, more than 80 human rights and sports advocacy groups called on the IOC to reject a blanket ban on transgender and intersex athletes, and criticized universal “genetic sex testing” as regressive.

The new policy would prevent two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya from competing in women’s categories, due to her medical conditions known as “differences in sex development,” or DSD.

The eligibility policy will first apply at the L.A. Olympics in order to protect “fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,” the IOC said, adding, “It is not retroactive and does not apply to any grassroots or recreational sports programs.”

The Olympic Charter specifically states that access to playing sport is a human right. It’s not clear how the new policy banning a particular class of athletes fits with the charter’s goals.

The IOC does not have a blanket ban on transgender men competing in men’s Olympic categories.

Fox News’ Harris Faulkner asked Trump in 2024 how he planned to stop transgender women from participating in women’s Olympic sports.

“Do you go to the sports leagues? Do you go to the Olympics?” she asked.

“You just ban it, “Trump answered. “The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

At the beginning of his second term in February 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled, “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” with a goal of promoting “safe and fair sports.”

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected to more accurately reflect the scope of the ban, we apologize for the error.

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