International Olympic Committee: Women’s Olympics will be restricted to biological women from 2028

This is a very important decision by the IOC after years of controversy over the participation of trans and DSD athletes in women’s competitions, as well as fierce debate over how sport should balance fairness, safety and inclusivity.

The IOC has traditionally left it up to the international sports community to determine eligibility criteria for women’s competitions, reflecting how sensitive a policy area this has become. But in a major shift in policy, all federations are now set to follow suit.

A blanket ban on transgender and DSD athletes from participating in women’s sports would be welcomed by many who have long argued that such a move is vital if fairness and safety in the female category is to be maintained.

Supporters say this approach, based on genetic testing, has recently been used successfully in athletics and boxing and is a reliable, confidential and proportionate approach that has the support of sports scientists and the vast majority of athletes.

They also say this approach is more humane than requiring transgender or DSD athletes to suppress their natural testosterone levels and could avoid the intense media scrutiny that some athletes are subject to.

However, opponents remain concerned that the method is invasive and carries the risk of accidental contamination and potential false positives.

This month, a group of academics called sex testing a “retrograde and harmful anachronism” in a report to the British Journal of Sports Medicine and said the tests violated athletes’ human rights and could cause stigma and psychological distress.

They said this was “a simplistic approach that reduces traits to a single gene and does not reflect the complex nature of sex”.

The International Olympic Committee used the SRY genetic test in the 1980s, but the gender verification test was scrapped in the 1990s after numerous “false positives” and concerns that female athletes were being penalized for natural variations.

Now, under mounting pressure, sport’s most powerful body has taken a new approach and it will be fascinating to see if it now faces any legal challenges.