IOC bans transgender women athletes beginning with LA Games in 2028

Transgender women are banned from competing in women's events at the Olympics, beginning with the Los Angeles Summer Games in 2028.

International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry announced the change Thursday, March 26, reversing its 2004 decision to allow the participation of transgender women athletes. To date, only one openly transgender woman has competed at the Olympics in 2021, a weightlifter from New Zealand who did not make it past her opening round of competition at the Tokyo Games.

Women who want to compete at the Olympics will have to do a one-time test to screen for the presence of the SRY gene.

The geneticist who discovered the SRY gene has said it should not be used as a definitive marker of sex. Genetic testing is also illegal in some countries, including France.

"If it is illegal in a country, athletes will have the possibility when they travel to other competitions to be tested there," Coventry said. "This is also why we're saying the policy comes into effect now, but will be implemented in LA 28. So we have time to walk through this process with everyone."

Coventry also dismissed concerns about requiring young athletes to be tested. The youngest athlete at the Paris Olympics was 11 while the Youth Olympic Games are reserved for athletes ages 15 to 18.

"We're going to be able to help the rest of the movement implement this in a safe way, in an ethical way, and in a human way, which I think … was really a basis for the policy of this athlete-centered way forward," Coventry said.

Transgender participation has been a focus of right-wing and transphobic groups, which claim it threatens women's sports and women athletes despite there being a miniscule amount of transgender athletes. The IOC took up the issue in September 2024 after several sport federations, including World Athletics and World Aquatics, took steps to limit or ban transgender athletes.

The following year, Coventry announced the creation of a working group that looked at "scientific, medical and legal developments since 2021."

"The scientific evidence is very clear," she said in a video released by the IOC. "Male chromosomes give performance advantages in sports that rely on strength, power or endurance."

That remains in dispute, however, and a 2024 study funded in part by the IOC directly contradicts that idea and cautioned against bans. Jane Thornton, the IOC's medical and scientific director, dismissed the study, saying it didn't have "Olympic data."

But the IOC refuses to publish the science it says shows the need for a ban on transgender athletes. It also has refused to identify the members of the working group that created it, though several researchers whose findings have cast doubt on a competitive advantage for transgender women told USA TODAY Sports in September that they were not included.

The IOC could be forced to reveal what science it is relying on, however, because the ban is almost certain to be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.