Transgender athletes set to be banned from Olympic Games

In 2026, the International Olympic Committee is expected to rule on disallowing transgender women from competing in female competitions.

Earlier today (10 Nov), it was announced that the ban would soon come into place, following alleged evidence gathered during a recent science-based review, according to The Times.

This evidence allegedly supports the notion that being assigned male at birth has permanent physical advantages, even after an individual has undergone a full gender transition.

Until now, the IOC has allowed transgender women to compete against cisgender athletes, under the conditions that they demonstrate reduced testosterone levels. It was also up to the organisers of individual sports to decide whether or not to allow them to compete.

The upcoming change will now reportedly be made following the election of Kirsty Coventry to the organising body's President.

Kirsty Coventry was elected as the IOC President earlier this year (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)

Back in June, she argued: "We understand there will be differences depending on the sports. We should make the effort to place emphasis on the protection of the female category and we should ensure that this is done in consensus with all the stakeholders."

Coventry - who previously swam for Zimbabwe during the Olympics - continued: "But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area.”

According to a source, the findings of the latest review were presented by Dr Jane Thornton - the committee’s medical and scientific director - during a meeting in Lausanne, which sought to decide on athletes with differences of sexual development competing in female sport.

The presentation, given by Thornton herself, a former Olympic rower for Canada, argued that transgender athletes supposedly boasted several physical advantages compared to cisgender athletes.

These changes were also reportedly found to have remained in transgender athletes who had taken treatment to reduce the amount of testosterone in their bodies.

One source told The Times of the alleged findings: "It was a very scientific, factual and unemotional presentation which quite clearly laid out the evidence."

An IOC spokesperson has since spoken out on the matter, telling Sky News: "An update was given by the IOC medical and scientific director to the IOC members last week at the commission meetings.

The decision was reportedly based upon a science-based review (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

"The working group is continuing its discussions on this topic and no decisions have been taken yet. Further information will be provided in due course."

The new ban is reportedly set to come into effect early next year, with the same publication predicting that organisers of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics will utilise it, scheduled to take place in early February.

The Times also claims that it will also cover DSD, or differences of sex development, which, according to the NHS, is a group of rare conditions where reproductive organs, hormones, and genes are different from their sex chromosomes.

This said, however, the policy is not yet considered legally watertight, as previous decisions have been based on expert recommendations, as opposed to bans falling under blanket eligibility rules.

During last year's Olympic Games in Paris, both Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and her Taiwanese co-competitor Lin Yu-Ting made headlines, as they'd both been disqualified from the 2023 World Championships for allegedly failing to meet the gender eligibility criteria.

Despite the pair winning Gold in Paris, following the introduction of new mandatory sex testing implemented by World Boxing, the new international boxing federation, recognised since last year's summer games, the pair won't be allowed to compete in the female category until they've passed.

According to BBC Sport, in September, Khelif filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over the ruling; however, the request to suspend the decision was dismissed until the case is heard.

LADbible Group has contacted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for comment.