IOC bans male athletes from competing in women’s Olympic sports, cites ‘performance advantage’

March 27, 2026

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has unveiled a new policy in which trans-identified male athletes will be ineligible to compete on women’s sports teams in the 2028 Olympic Games.

The Christian Post reports that the IOC, which oversees the Olympic competitions, created the new policy to ensure fairness for female athletes.

On Thursday the IOC published the new Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport and Guiding Considerations for International Federations and Sports Governing Bodies.

 The policy states: “The most accurate and least intrusive way currently available to screen for sex is by screening for the SRY Gene, which is a segment of DNA that is almost always on the Y chromosome, initiates male sex development in utero, and signals the presence of testes.”

Under the new guidelines, only athletes who test negative for the SRY gene can compete in women’s sports in the Olympic Games.

According to the Christian Post, athletes who test positive for the SRY gene, including trans-identified male athletes, may compete on men’s sports teams or in an open category in sports or events that do not classify athletes by sex.

The new policy reflects the consensus of an IOC working group that found that male sex “confers performance advantage in all sports and events that rely on strength, power, and/or endurance” and that “it is necessary and adequate to base eligibility for competition on sex” to “protect fairness in such sports and events, as well as safety, particularly in contact sports.”

Other organizations that have taken similar action in recent years to prohibit trans-identified male athletes from competing on women’s sports teams include World Aquatics and the World Boxing Council.

The policy is not retroactive and will take effect before the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. 

Photo: top, Credit: IOC