LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Transsexuals were cleared Monday to compete in the Olympics for the first time.
Under a proposal approved by the IOC executive board, athletes who have undergone sex-change surgery will be eligible for the Olympics if their new gender has been legally recognized and they have gone through a minimum two-year period of postoperative hormone therapy.
The decision, which covers both male-to-female and female-to-male cases, goes into effect starting with the Athens Olympics in August.
The IOC had put off a decision in February, saying more time was needed to consider all the medical issues.
Some members had been concerned whether male-to-female transsexuals would have physical advantages competing against women.
Men have higher levels of testosterone and greater muscle-to-fat ratio and heart and lung capacity. However, doctors say, testosterone levels and muscle mass drop after hormone therapy and sex-change surgery.
IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said the situation of transsexuals competing in high-level sports was "rare but becoming more common."
IOC medical director Patrick Schamasch said no specific sports had been singled out by the ruling.
"Any sport may be touched by this problem," he said. "Until now, we didn't have any rules or regulations. We needed to establish some sort of policy."
Until 1999, the IOC conducted gender verification tests at the Olympics but the screenings were dropped before the 2000 Sydney Games.
One of the best known cases of transsexuals in sports involves Renee Richards, formerly Richard Raskind, who played on the women's tennis tour in the 1970s.
In March, Australia's Mianne Bagger became the first transsexual to play in a pro golf tournament.
Michelle Dumaresq, formerly Michael, has competed in mountain bike racing for Canada.
Richards, now a New York opthamologist, was surprised by the IOC decision and was against it. She said decisions on transsexuals should be made on an individual basis.
"Basically, I think they're making a wrong judgment here, although I would have loved to have that judgment made in my case in 1976," she said.
"They're probably looking for trouble down the line. There may be a true transsexual — not someone who's nuts and wants to make money — who will be a very good champion player, and it will be a young person, let's say a Jimmy Connors or a Tiger Woods, and then they'll have an unequal playing field.
"In some sports, the physical superiority of men over women is very significant."
2012 BID CITIES: With nine cities in the running to host the 2012 Olympics, the IOC executive board Tuesday is expected to keep as many as six candidates and as few as four.
New York is one of four cities virtually assured of making the cut, along with Paris, London and Madrid, Spain.
Havana definitely won't make the list. That leaves four cities on the bubble: Moscow; Istanbul, Turkey; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig and Istanbul appear to be the least likely of surviving.
The decision will kick off a 14-month race culminating with the selection of the host city by the full IOC assembly in Singapore in July 2005.
Paris, which last hosted the Olympics in 1924, is viewed as the front-runner. The French capital successfully hosted soccer's World Cup in 1998, and it is seen by IOC members as having paid its dues after failed bids for the 1992 and 2008 Olympics. London is considered the main challenger.
New York has to contend with anti-American sentiment fueled by the invasion of Iraq, as well as the geographical disadvantage of having the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada (Vancouver, British Columbia). The IOC is reluctant to award consecutive Olympics to the same continent.
NO SPORTS AXED FOR 2008: Baseball, softball and modern pentathlon were assured Monday they will remain on the Olympic program at least through the 2008 Beijing Games.
The International Olympic Committee said, barring serious ethical violations or failure to uphold anti-doping rules, no sports will be dropped before the games of 2012.
The decision, announced by IOC president Jacques Rogge at the opening of a three-day executive board meeting, gives endangered sports more breathing space as they try to preserve their Olympic status.
Rogge said the IOC will review all the sports after this summer's Athens Olympics and decide on the 2012 program at its session in Singapore in July 2005. Meantime, the list of 28 Olympic sports will stay unchanged for Beijing.
VOLLEYBALL CHIEF RESIGNS: The president of the international volleyball federation resigned as a member of the IOC on Monday amid allegations of financial impropriety.
Ruben Acosta, of Mexico, said he was leaving the IOC immediately because of his ethics dispute with the committee and to avoid further conflict before the Athens Olympics.
Acosta also noted that he had reached 70, the age limit for International Olympic Committee members. He was elected in 2000, and his term would have expired at the end of the year.
Acosta said he will remain as president of the volleyball federation, FIVB, which runs the indoor volleyball and outdoor beach volleyball competitions at the Olympics.
The announcement came two days before the IOC ethics commission is due to report to the executive board — including a possible recommendation for expulsion — on allegations that Acosta misused Olympic funds. A Swiss court also is investigating.
Acosta has denied any wrongdoing.