Olympic Ban On Trans/DSD Males From Women's Sport
New ruling expected to go further than World Aquatics rules by banning not only athletes who developed through male puberty from the female category but also those with male-relevant DSDs. Confirmation to come at 4.15 CET press conference...
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that women’s sport will be ring-fenced for females only in a new policy today.
The International Olympic Committee announces new Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport.
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) March 26, 2026
Read: https://t.co/QcU5IVxyTi pic.twitter.com/3brHorx1k8
The Details In Full:
International Olympic Committee announces new Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport
"Safety, fairness and integrity"
The new ruling goes further than World Aquatics rules by banning from the women's category not only athletes who developed through male puberty but those with a DSD (difference in sexual development) of the kind that mean the athlete matured with levels of testosterone in the male range, not the female range.
It will be backed by simple, non-invasive sex tests for females, to safeguard the "safety, fairness and integrity" of women's sport.
The move, confirmed by Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic 200m backstroke champion of 2004 and 2008 and now IOC president, a moment ago, honours her pledge to safeguard the women's category in Olympic sports for females, in keeping with constitutional obligations to safe and fair play.
Since a late-2015 change of ruling that dropped the need for a transwoman (male) to have surgery on sexual organs in order to be eligible to compete against females, the IOC has moved strongly in favour of allowing biological males to compete in women's events.
A decade of preventable pain and argument for women is expected to end today when Coventry reveals the IOC's new position: in sport, Sex Matters. .. because it is an objective and significant reality, not a matter of belief or gender self-indentity.
A press conference will take place at 4.15 CET in Switzerland to reveal the new policy and the details of when it will come into effect. The move to protect the women's category for females is the strongest legacy building move Coventry has made since her election last year:
Craig Lord
In the era of Thomas Bach, Coventry's predecessor on the Olympic throne, the world saw male weightlifter Laurel Hubbard compete for New Zealand at Tokyo202One, while the biggest controversy of Paris 2024 involved boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting: they were both disqualified from world championships when sex tests indicated the presence of male chromosomes, and yet the IOC welcomed them to the women's arena in Paris - and both claimed gold medals in their respective weight categories designed for safe and fair play, but also in the wrong sex category when it came to delivering safe and fair play for female boxers.
Coventry pledged change during her campaign fro replace Bach, but it was not until autumn last year that the IOC showed it was serious when it backed a presentation by Canada’s Dr. Jane Thornton, a former Olympic rower who documented how biological males outperform women even after taking testosterone suppressants. Similar information had been available for several years in a number of different studies, including some referred to in "Unfair Play", the 2023 book by Sharron Davies, now Baroness Davies, with this author:
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The saga, as noted in Unfair Play, dates back to the late 1990s. Baroness Davies, the first swimmer home with a clean record in the 1980 Olympic 400m medley final, told SOS:
"I'm very pleased the IOC have at last seen fit to use the science & basic common sense to protect the female category. Strong rules must be written into IOC law that does not allow women’s sport be so disposable ever again. It’s taken over 25 years for males to be removed from sport for females. It’s vital that women’s sport is given the respect & protections it deserves. It’s also imperative we recognise all women & girls deserve their sport, free from males, not just the very best only."
She notes that at the Women's Sports Union she co-founded "we will carry on fighting for the rights & opportunities of all females".
The IOC’s 2021 framework on “fairness, inclusion and non-discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex variations” put the wishes of trans women campaigning to muscle in on women's sport above the interests of women, safe sport, fair sport, and commitments in the organisation's own Olympic Charter.
World Rugby was the first international federation to impose a ban on males ion the women's category, in 2020-21, while World Aquatics followed in 2022, ahead of World Athletics and World Cycling, which bar those developed through male puberty but not for significant kinds of DSD.
International federations are expected to update their rules to fall in line with the new IOC policy.
The latest development will be widely welcomed in women's sport, and follows long-term campaigning by the likes of Sharron Davies and Nancy Hogshead, and Dr. Linda Blade from athletics, and by the scientists and academics who have tirelessly kept telling the truth and facts about the unfair and unsafe nature of allowing any male advantage into female sport. Plaudits to all.
Reactions included some of those own the list of those deserving pundits for their work, not least of all Dr Emma Hilton and Cathy Devine, and those they worked with and alongside, such as Dr. Tommy Lundberg, Dr. Jon Pike and Dr. Ross Tucker:
Great job, @iocmedia
— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) March 26, 2026
Eligibility for the female category via SRY screening.
Trans-identifying males and athletes with androgenising DSDs to be excluded.
Well done to all involved, particularly to Kirsty Coventry and Jane Thornton for their leadership here. #IOC https://t.co/LAU7dPNnIZ
In 2025, Jon Pike and I argued that exclusion of athletes with androgenising XY DSDs from female athletics is justified, because these athletes are male, not female.@runthinkwrite https://t.co/QNbtuOjwIG pic.twitter.com/hScj68GOzp
— Emma Hilton (@FondOfBeetles) March 26, 2026
Yes!
— Cathy Devine (@cathydevine56) March 26, 2026
'Eligibility for the Female Category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY Gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY Gene.'
Thank you @iocmedia for supporting equality & non-discrimination for female athletes in sport. https://t.co/jvMUTCHa9R
The 2021 Framework document was one of the worst bits of thinking I've ever read about fairness in sport. I'm no longer a Trotskyist, but 'into the dustbin of history' seems apt.
— Jon Pike (@runthinkwrite) March 26, 2026
I'll be opening some fizz later on because of this sentence: pic.twitter.com/CF3StGE5Z7
More on the saga of years at SOS:
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Craig Lord
Craig Lord
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A few books that sum it all up very well and include multiple references and information on studies and the historical trail of the sage:
Craig Lord
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