Athletes who are biologically male but identify as transgender will not be permitted to compete in women’s categories at the 2028 Olympic Games, following a newly adopted policy aimed at maintaining fairness in female competition.
The International Olympic Committee announced its updated “Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport,” along with broader guidance for international sports federations.
“The most accurate and least intrusive way currently available to screen for sex is by screening for the SRY Gene, which is a segment of DNA that is almost always on the Y chromosome, initiates male sex development in utero, and signals the presence of testes,” the policy states, released Thursday.
According to the new rules, eligibility for women’s events will be limited to athletes who test negative for the SRY gene.
Competitors who test positive for the gene — including transgender-identifying male athletes — will instead be eligible to compete in men’s divisions or in open categories where events are not separated by sex. The policy will not be applied retroactively and is set to take effect ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The working group concluded that male biology “confers performance advantage in all sports and events that rely on strength, power, and/or endurance” and emphasized that basing eligibility on biological sex is “necessary and adequate” to ensure fairness and safety, particularly in contact sports.
“XY Transgender athletes retain male performance advantage due in part to training effects and fixed traits. There is no current evidence that testosterone suppression or gender-affirming hormone treatment eliminates this advantage,” the policy states.
The document further outlined physiological differences between males and females in athletics, noting advantages such as “larger and stronger skeletal muscle and bone, larger and stronger hearts, larger lung size, more red blood cells, and lower body fat than females trained to the equivalent level.”
It also estimated that males typically hold a 10% to 12% performance edge in running and swimming, around a 20% advantage in many throwing and jumping events, and differences exceeding 100% in explosive activities like collision, lifting and striking sports.
