More than 80 human rights and sports advocacy groups have called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to abandon plans to introduce universal genetic sex testing for female athletes and impose a blanket ban on transgender and intersex competitors.
A joint statement released on Tuesday (17) by the Sport & Rights Alliance (SRA), ILGA World, Humans of Sport and dozens of other groups warned that the measures reportedly to be recommended by the IOC Women’s Category Protection Working Group would represent a setback for gender equality in sport.
“Multiple sources stated that the group advised the IOC to require all female and girl athletes to undergo genetic sex verification and to ban transgender and intersex athletes from competing in women’s events. The IOC has not publicly confirmed the recommendations,” the statement reads.
The IOC said in a statement to Reuters this Wednesday (18) that no decision had been made.
“The working group on the protection of the women’s category continues its discussions on the matter and no decision has yet been taken,” said the IOC spokesperson. “More information will be provided in due course.”
The IOC discontinued universal sex testing after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The IOC has long refused to enforce any universal rules on transgender people’s participation in the Olympic Games, and in 2021 it instructed international federations to create their own guidelines.
Several important federations, including athletics, swimming and rugby, have already banned athletes who have gone through male puberty from competing in the female category.
SRA executive director Andrea Florence said sex testing and a blanket ban policy would be a “catastrophic erosion of women’s rights and safety”.
“Gender-based oversight and exclusion harms all women and girls and undermines the very dignity and justice that the IOC claims to defend,” he added.
Jon Pike, an English academic in the field of sports philosophy and advocate of protecting the women’s category, said the letter was “ridiculous, desperate and absurd”.
“The working group does not propose a ban, but rather the exclusion of men from the women’s category,” Pike wrote on social media platform X.
“This letter was predictable and, in some ways, encouraging. Nothing is set in stone, but I am optimistic given the pessimism of this group.”
International bodies, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Women and the World Medical Association, have condemned sex testing and related interventions as discriminatory and harmful.
This “violates the privacy of women and girls” and exposes child athletes to safety risks, said Payoshni Mitra, executive director of Humans of Sport.
Advocates have also argued that banning transgender and intersex athletes ignores the barriers these athletes face, including harassment, restricted access to sport, and other structural disadvantages.
“Sport should be a place of belonging,” said Julia Ehrt, executive director of ILGA World.
The groups stated that the proposals released contradict the IOC’s own Framework of Reference on Justice, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination, the guiding document that gives federations the responsibility for setting their own rules.
“I hope the proposals contradict the 2021 Framework document, because that is one of the most confusing policy statements — to say the least — I have ever read,” Pike added.
“He claimed, as you may remember, that there was ‘no assumed advantage’ of men over women (in sport).”
World Athletics is among the sports organizations that have already adopted gender testing, introducing a unique genetic test for the SRY gene, obtained via a mouth swab, for all female athletes ahead of last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.
