The Olympics’ core values are supposedly “Excellence, Respect and Friendship”, derived from the original values of “encourage effort, preserve human dignity, and develop harmony”. Yet, this foundation seems to be crumbling before our eyes.
It was recently announced, on the 27th of March, that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has banned transgender athletes from competing in Women's events. This change will come into effect from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. This ban will fundamentally disadvantage all women and will only further contribute to gender wars.
The IOC had previously encouraged international federations to determine their own guidelines, rather than deciding on universal rules, when admitting transgender women athletes. However, a recent shift in the presidency has led to dramatic changes.
Kristy Coventry, the new IOC president, is the first woman to occupy this position and a 3x Olympic swimming champion. Despite holding a historically significant position for women and winning the ballot against six other men, her actions so far have further disadvantaged women. It’s a shame that such a notable achievement is now being deteriorated by further discrimination.
With these new rules in place, exclusively biologically female athletes will be allowed to compete after a one-time gene-screening test. How forgiving is that? The testing will be conducted through a saliva, blood or cheek swab known as an SRY test, standing for Sex-determining Region Y gene. While these tests are less invasive as previous methods, it is still limited in its one-time availability.
These new rules will mean transgender female athletes will not be allowed to compete alongside cisgender female athletes. The IOC clarifies that, instead, "they are eligible for any male category, including in a designated male slot within any mixed category, and any open category". Putting transgender women athletes in the same slot as male categories is equally problematic. Not only would this create an unfair environment, but it also puts transgender women in a vulnerable and unsafe position, making them easily subject to abuse, violence, or ridicule.
A study partially funded partly by the IOC and published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2024 found that transgender women athletes may actually have several physical disadvantages when competing with cisgender women. Further, they concluded that there should not be any official bans and sport eligibility exclusions until substantially more research is done and that this research is specific to each sport.
A second study, conducted by The Brazilian Review, had compiled research from 52 studies involving 6,485 participants and found that while transgender women exhibited higher lean mass, their physical fitness was comparable to cisgender women.
Facts are facts.
To what extent are these arguments against transgender athletes simply unreasonable? All bodies are different, and higher or lower lean mass would already be different person to person. So, if studies show that physical fitness between cisgender and transgender female athletes is comparable, then what’s the big idea?
The big idea is transphobia and misogyny. Frankly, women have been a target in sports since the beginning. In the ancient Olympic games, married women were forbidden from watching the Olympics and could be subject to the death penalty for doing so. Women also weren’t allowed to compete until the 1900 Paris Olympics and even then, were limited to the events deemed as feminine such as lawn tennis, golf, croquet, sailing and equestrianism.
Putting the discriminatory effects of this policy aside, it also endangers all women competing and puts them in an incredibly vulnerable position. This tension creates an environment that is fueled by fearmongering and encourages false allegations. It also endorses invasive and discriminatory screenings that push women into vulnerable positions and open them up to being taken advantage of and abused. As Pride Cup, an organisation advocating for LGBTQIA+ inclusion in sporting spaces, clearly identifies: "[These] Investigations often involve coerced medical exams, disclosure of intimate health information, and media scrutiny that can permanently harm the person."
Previously, several cisgender women have been accused of being transgender by fellow athletes. Transphobia continues to undermine the solidarity of women. Continuous false allegations are often targeted towards athletes of colour, which leads to ridicule and humiliation. Athletes who have spent their lives training and preparing themselves for this opportunity are being stripped of all hope in front of their eyes.
It seems as though this change will only create further tensions and form more cracks in the foundations of the Olympics. The change is discriminatory and threatening to all women.
“Excellence, Respect and Friendship”? I don’t think so.
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