Olympics align with Trump as transgender athletes banned from women’s games
Al Jazeera
Transgender athletes are banned from women’s Olympic events by new IOC policy that aims to protect ‘fairness, safety and integrity’.
Transgender women athletes are now excluded from women’s events at the Olympics after the IOC agreed to a new eligibility policy that aligns with US President Donald Trump’s executive order on sports ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.
“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 International Olympic Committee (IOC) said, noting this is to be determined by a mandatory gene test once in an athlete’s career.
It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, though New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal.
The new eligibility policy, which will apply at the July 2028 LA Olympics and at other Games going forward, aims to protect “fairness, safety and integrity in the female category”, the IOC said.
“It is not retroactive and does not apply to any grassroots or recreational sports programmes,” said the IOC, whose Olympic Charter states that access to play sport is a human right.
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