Olympic Committee Reaches Consensus On New Trans and Gender Policy
Sports leaders have reached consensus on new eligibility criteria for trans athletes – policy to be announced within several months.
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On Saturday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it has reached consensus on a new set of eligibility requirements for transgender athletes. The new policy is expected to be announced within the first half of the year. This would be the first-ever uniform policy taken up by the IOC and international sports federations, applicable to dozens of sports and events, including the Olympic Games and various world championships. It is a break from the IOC’s 2021 move to instruct international federations to devise their own guidelines.
While the details have not been made public, they are expected to apply to the women’s categories, targeting athletes who have undergone full male puberty before any subsequent medical transition. As reported by GO last November, IOC president, former competitive swimmer Kirsty Coventry, had been diligently working to solidify her campaign to ban trans women from the female category in Olympic events. Last June, she pushed policy toward a uniform approach. By September, she had set up the “Protection of the Female Category” working group, made up of “experts” and international federation representatives.
Related: New IOC President Signals Transgender Women To Be Banned From Female Olympic Events
“Protecting the female category is one of the key reforms she wants to bring in,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told press at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games this past Saturday. “I would say it is going to happen shortly, within the next few months.
The decisions to date are in alignment with Trump’s February Executive Order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which specifically sets sights on the Olympics.
“The Secretary of State shall use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction,” the EO reads.
