The International Olympic Committee announced a new policy Thursday that bars transgender women from competing at the Olympics.
“It’s been done with the best interests of athletes right at the heart. We know that this topic is sensitive,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry told reporters during a virtual news conference from the organization’s Swiss headquarters.
Coventry, an Olympic champion swimmer from Zimbabwe, has made determining ways to ”protect the female category” a priority since her election last year as the first African and first woman to lead the IOC.
“At the Olympic Games, you know the smallest little bit of an advantage can be what makes you a gold medalist or not. To me, that comes back down to protecting the field of play and to having that field of play being safe and equal for all,” she said. “I feel that’s what this policy does.”
The new eligibility policy aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump’s "Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports” executive order signed in February 2025 that was intended to prevent transgender athletes from competing in all sporting events, including the Olympics.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee adopted a ban last July.
Eligibility to compete at the Olympics will be “determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening” under the policy. Calling it an “evidence-based and expert-informed” policy, the IOC said it “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category.”
Previously, the IOC had left decisions about transgender athlete participation up to the international federations over individual sports under the "Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations" adopted in 2021.
The Associated Press reported it’s “unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level.” At the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, the gender of two female boxers was questioned by some, but the IOC president at the time said they were born as women.
The application of the new policy will start with the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Utah is hosting a second Winter Games, in 2034. The Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games acknowledged the change.
“We recognize that this has been an important topic across sport for some time,” Fraser Bullock, the committee’s president and executive chair, said in a statement. “We respect the IOC under President Kirsty Coventry for its work and for providing a pathway for the future.”
The IOC said the new policy on transgender athlete participation adopted by the organization’s Executive Board is not retroactive and does not apply to any grassroots or recreational sports programs.
This story will be updated.