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Reports that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will ban biological male trans athletes from women’s competition have prompted reactions from those involved in the protection of women’s sports.
Amid a global movement to ensure women-only participation in women’s sports, the IOC’s potential reform would mark one of the biggest global moves to achieve this goal to date.
In the United States, two cases are set to be heard by the Supreme Court on the issue, and they could lead to reform of a similar scope. The case of Little vs. Hecox and West Virginia vs BPJ, which will likely be heard by SCOTUS judges in early 2026, could potentially result in a landmark precedent to protect women’s sports.
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Kriston Waggoner, president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, which is co-leading the defense in these cases, issued a statement to Pakinomist Digital addressing her reaction to reports of the potential IOC decision.
“I’m encouraged that the IOC is moving toward a long-overdue decision to ban men from women’s Olympic events. Women don’t train their entire lives to become elite athletes only to be supplanted by men and then get fired up for speaking up,” Wagoner said. “If the IOC follows through on this policy, it is a welcome step in the right direction. But there is still work to be done to protect women and girls at all levels of competition. In January, ADF will support WV & ID as they defend women’s school sport at the Supreme Court.”
Three other lawsuits in the US, aimed at addressing past cases of trans athletes in women’s sport and seeking compensation for the women affected, are being funded by the Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS).
ICONS co-founders Kim Jones and Marshi Smith have helped raise money for Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA, Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the NCAA and three former UPenn women’s swimmers against that university over the Lia Thomas scandal in 2022.
Jones and Smith addressed the reports of the IOC’s potential reform in statements to Pakinomist Digital.
“ICONS welcomes the IOC’s long-awaited move to restore fairness and integrity to women’s Olympic competition. This shift came only after the world saw the safety and fairness of women’s events collapse in Paris, where male boxers violently took medals meant for women,” Smith said.
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“It should never have taken global outrage and lost gold medals to bring sanity back, but this marks a major step towards reality for the world’s most powerful sports committee. We look forward to seeing how the IOC enforces its new eligibility rules, as strong and transparent enforcement is essential to real progress. Fortunately, the IOC can look to successful examples from World Athletics, which recently implemented women-based, boxing-based and sex-based standards within boxing science categories.
“It is also important to clarify that this is not a ‘transgender’ or DSD ban, but a long-needed clarification of eligibility – confirming that participation in the women’s category is based on genetic sex, ideally verified through a simple, accurate and non-invasive one-time cheek swab to ensure the fairness, safety and integrity of the competition.”
Jones added: “There are too many women who lost out on records, awards and recognition, chances to compete on a world stage, because of bad politics, and these women deserve an apology and a sincere effort to put things right. We look forward to a future of transparency and accountability for women in sport.”
The IOC’s current policy leaves it up to each sport’s governing body to create policies for transgender athletes. But when the IOC changed leadership, The Times of London reported on Monday that its policies will also change.
IOC president Kirsty Coventry called for “protecting” the women’s category in June, and there was “overwhelming support” from IOC members to do the same.
“We understand that there will be differences depending on the sport … but it was very clear from members that we need to protect the women’s category, first and foremost to ensure fairness,” Coventry said at the time.
“But we have to do it with one scientific approach and the involvement of the international federations, which have already done a lot of work in this area.”
The upcoming policy change is likely to be announced at IOC session in February before the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina in Italy and comes after a presentation by Dr. Jane Thornton, the IOC’s medical and scientific director, last week according to The Times.
Thornton’s presentation allegedly showed that there were physical benefits in men, including those taking treatments to reduce testosterone levels. A source told the paper that the presentation was “very scientific” and unemotional.
“An update was provided by the IOC Director of Health, Medicine and Science to IOC members last week during IOC Commission meetings,” an IOC spokesperson told Pakinomist Digital. “The working group is continuing its discussions on this topic and no decisions have yet been made. Further information will be provided in due course.”
Athletes with DSD – those who were raised as female but born with male characteristics – are to be covered by the new policy, according to The Times. Olympic boxing had two major controversies about athletes who have failed gender tests in the past.
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Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting won gold medals in their respective weight classes in the women’s division despite much turmoil. Khelif has insisted they were women. Lin has not commented on the controversy since the Olympics ended.
World Boxing has since implemented mandatory gender testing for its competitors and Khelif will not be able to compete unless the test is completed.
