New policy ensures only female athletes can compete in women’s Olympic events

Male athletes who identify as “transgender” women can no longer compete in female events at the Olympics under a new International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy announced March 26, ending years of controversy that had allowed men to displace female athletes on the world’s biggest stage. 

“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females,” the IOC said, adding that the policy “protects fairness, safety, and integrity in the female category.”

The policy — which will take effect for the 2028 Los Angeles Games — bases eligibility on a one-time SRY gene screening test that determines whether an athlete possesses a male Y chromosome. It allows narrow exceptions in rare cases of differences of sex development, such as complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, in which testosterone does not confer a performance advantage. 

IOC President Kirsty Coventry said the decision rests on scientific evidence showing that male puberty confers lasting physical advantages in sports.

“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” she said. “So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”

On its website, the IOC said it adopted the policy after an 18-month review. It replaces the previous framework that left eligibility decisions to individual international sports federations. Some federations — including those governing track and field, swimming, and cycling — had already barred male athletes who had gone through male puberty.

According to FOX News, a September 2025 presentation at a World Athletics panel in Tokyo revealed that 50 to 60 athletes with male biological advantages have reached finals in women’s events at global and continental championships since 2000. The United Nations reported in October 2024 that more than 600 female athletes had lost nearly 900 medals across two dozen sports to male athletes who claimed to be women. 

The policy change follows years of advocacy by social conservatives to defend biological reality in women’s sports. American Principles Project President Terry Schilling, a Catholic advocate, emerged as a leading voice opposing LGBT policies ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Weeks after President Donald Trump won the election, Schilling argued that the “culture war” had become a defining issue for his win.

In February 2025, shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order barring men from competing in women’s sports in the U.S. In March 2026, Trump said he had “put the world on notice that America will not allow men to compete against women in the 2028 Olympics.”

CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt has also had a firm voice in calling for fairness in girls’ sports, advocating for ballot initiatives to protect girls’ sports in states like Colorado and speaking out that males competing in girls’ sports is “unjust, irrational, and must not stand.”