The International Olympic Committee adopted a new policy on March 26, 2026, excluding transgender women athletes from women's events starting with the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. IOC President Kirsty Coventry announced this decision, which reverses more than two decades of progressive inclusion policy.
The new rule states that "eligibility for any event in the female category at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event" is reserved for athletes assigned female at birth. This decision aligns with U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order on sports, signed earlier in the year.
The decision follows controversies at the Paris 2024 Games, where Algerian boxer Imane Khelif was at the center of a global debate on gender eligibility in sports. The IOC was then criticized for the vagueness of its guidelines. The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games, concluded in February, saw Kirsty Coventry succeed Thomas Bach as president.
Reactions are divided. Trans rights advocacy groups denounce a discriminatory exclusion. Athletes and sports federations that advocated for the protection of the female category welcome an awaited clarification, arguing that physiological advantages linked to male puberty persist despite hormonal transition.
The IOC had progressively relaxed its rules since 2004, allowing the participation of transgender athletes under certain conditions (testosterone levels, duration of transition). The 2021 policy removed the testosterone threshold, leaving the decision to international federations. The new 2026 rule marks a return to a binary approach based on biological sex.
