IOC Hones In On Olympic Rule Preserving Women's Category For Females Only
A ban on biological males competing in the women's category at the Olympic Games, regardless of how an athlete identifies, is expected to be in place during the next year as first female IOC president Kirsty Coventry presses on with her fair-play pledge
The International Olympic Committee is expected to preserve the women's category at the Games for female athletes only with a ban on biological males, regardless of how they identified, expected to be in place long before Los Angeles 2028.
Multiple sources told a wide spread off media today that we should expect the new ruling to be ion place sometime in the next 6-12 months as new IOC president, the first Games boss in history, presses on with her pledge to ensure fair and safe play based on biological sex, not gender identity.
The move is widely supported in sport, despite the number of sport-specific federations still dragging their heels ing the matter more than five years after World Rugby ring-fenced the women;'s category for females only and three years after swimming did the same a year ahead of World Athletics.
Despite years of campaigning for for fair and safe play for female athletes, previous IOC president Thomas Bach stuck to a toxic set of guidelines that enabled athletes biological males to compete at Tokyo 2020ne, and then saw female boxers at Paris 2024 forced to endure bouts against fighters benefitting from male biology.
A change ion tinkle for LA2028 would avoid one of several clashes on the cards with US president, Donald Trump, after he signed an executive order to prevent transgender women from competing in female sport in February.
The IOC is believed to be grappling yet, however, with "internal resistance to a ban on athletes with differences of sexual development (DSD) ... who were reported female at birth but have male chromosomes and male testosterone levels", as The Guardian's Sean Ingle puts it, accurately, today. He is among reporters who have reported consistently on the controversy and its implications for fair and safe play.
Athletes at the heart of the DSD controversy, including the London 2012 and Rio 2016 gold medallist Caster Semenya, have now been barred from the female category by World Athletics. Semenya has retired from competition, and is married to the mother of the couple's child.
The IOC is likely to go the same way. Coventry, an Olympic 200m backstroke champion in the pool in 2004 and 2008, is expected to follow World Aquatics' lead from 2022: any athlete who has gone through male puberty will be banned from the female category.
Speculation that the preservation of the female category for women only could come as early as January flourished after it was reported that the IOC's director of health, medicine and science, Dr Jane Thornton, had given a science-based review of the evidence to its members last week, showing there were permanent physical advantages (in sporting terms) to being born male.
Biology checks are also expected, after Thornton, a former Canadian rower, noted that World Athletics, among other federations, were now using the SRY cheek-swab gene test to determine the biological sex of athletes:
Craig Lord
Craig Lord
In swimming, World Aquatics has pressed home the same message of late, with its ban on a masters swimmer, who has since opted to retire, as told in our October Vortex:
Caldas Banned For 5-Years For Failing To Submit To Sex Test
Hannah Caldas, who swam in the 2021 and 2024 World Masters Championships, under the name Anna, then Hannah, has been suspended from Aquatics for five years after having accessed the women's category by claiming to be a member of the opposite sex.
Caldas, who has competed in Masters events in the sport-health-lesiure community for those aged 25 and over, was born Hugo Caldas and is a biological male who identifies as a transwoman. Since 2022, World Aquatics rules have barred any athlete who developed through Tanner Stage 2 male puberty from the female/women's category:
Craig Lord
In 2023, the international federation reached out to the trans community with an invitation for them to register their interest in competing at the World Cup event in Berlin in northern autumn that year. None registered, including males identifying as (trans)women who believe their have a right to deprive women of their sex-based rights, which in sport are undeniably and highly significant:
Craig Lord
The 2022 rules include these clauses pertinent to the ban on Caldas, who was suspended for violating the following:
- Article 5.1, Article 5.2, Article 6 c), and Article 10.2 of the World Aquatics Integrity Code;
- The violations of the World Aquatics Integrity Code involve providing false information, failing to act honestly, and engaging in conduct that undermines integrity.
- Section F.2 a) and Section F.4 b) of the Policy on Eligibility for the Men’s and Women’s Competition Categories;
- The violations of the Policy on Eligibility for the Men’s and Women’s Competition Categories relate to false sex certification and failure to meet the women’s eligibility criteria.
- and Section B.2, Section B.7, and Section B.9 of the Operational Requirements to the Policy.
- The violations of the Operational Requirements to the Policy concern non-compliance with policy terms, missing required documentation, and breaches of procedural obligations.
Caldas is out of the sport until 18 October 2030, while the swimmer's results between 19 June 2022 and 17 October 17 2024 are expunged.
In August, U.S. Masters Swimming’s Eligibility Review Panel found that Caldas was eligible for competition in the female category, but that ruling ignored World Aquatics rules.
New York Aquatics issued a statement on behalf of Caldas in response to the World Aquatics suspension. It include the following:
Today, World Aquatics announced a five-year suspension of masters swimmer Hannah Caldas from World Masters competition and the disqualification of her results from the Doha 2024 World Aquatics Championships.
During the investigation, World Aquatics required Ms. Caldas to undergo a genetic or chromosomal test—at her own expense—to “prove” compliance with the organisation’s “chromosomal sex” requirement under its Gender Policy to take part in the older-adult recreational World Aquatics Masters competition. This test was required even after Ms. Caldas provided World Aquatics with her birth certificate identifying her as female.
The statement then cites Caldas as saying:
“Chromosomal tests are invasive and expensive procedures. My insurance refuses to cover such a test because it is not medically necessary. No U.S. state requires genetic tests for recreational sports events like these. Not even U.S. Masters Swimming, the national governing body for recreational adult swimming in the U.S., demands this for any of its events.”
SOS notes that the sex tests required are not 'invasive', according to female athletes who have taken the tests. Caldas cites U.S. rules but fails to grasp that all athletes racing internationally are subject to international rules. Caldas is no exception.
Challenges to the presence of biological males in female sport are in process at the U.S. Supreme Court:
Craig Lord
The New York Aquatics statement goes on to say that: "Masters swimming does not award prize money; in fact, Ms. Caldas personally paid thousands of dollars to travel to Doha and compete. She has also faced repeated violent threats in recent months simply for participating in swimming events."
SOS notes that none of that, of course, changes the fact that Caldas, in common with all other athletes, must comply with World Aquatics rules. The Statement cites Caldas acceptance of a penalty:
“I understand and accept the consequences of not complying with a World Aquatics investigation. But if a five-year suspension is the price I must pay to protect my most intimate medical information, then it’s a price I am happy to pay - for myself, and for every other woman who does not want to submit to highly invasive medical testing just to swim in an older-adult competition.”
SOS notes that every female athlete who has spoken out (and spoken to us) about the issue since 2018-19, when the debate took off, has been supportive of sex tests. In that sense, Caldas is not only not representing "every other woman" but in the most relevant issue in the case - sport and the context of sport and biology - the word "other" is a personal opinion, not a fact.
Caldas told New York Aquatics that a line has been drawn and that "... I am prepared to let it all go. My life and privacy have been invaded enough. It is time to prioritise my health and personal safety.”
SOS notes that those words are welcomed by female athletes, who have long noted that those like Hannah Caldas who wish to live their lives identifying as transwomen are welcome to do so (and many more of us would add 'and should face no hostility because of who they are, but like the rest of us, must understand that there are plenty of areas in life where sex matters - and that must also be respected and accepted). Those areas include races and safe places where women - biological females - also have rights, including legal rights; and those include the right to have a women's sex-based category in sport in the interests of fair and safe play - and in the interests of ensuring that girls have a fair and safe place to develop their interests in sport devoid of reasons to quit and consider sport to be "not for me".
Here is an example of where allowing a biological male into women's competition poses a clear and dangerous threat to their female opponent, as highlighted by Martina Navratilova:
Jesus… https://t.co/yUIqk7txlU
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) October 22, 2025
Commentary by Oliver Brown at The Telegraph:
Oliver Brown
- SOS notes = editorial/commentary
The IOC, meanwhile, denies that any decision has been made ion any new policy. A working group on the issue continues its work, and sources say summer 2026 is a more reasonable timetable for the process to end in a firm policy and rule.
A statement from the IOC read:
“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. 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.”
