The International Olympic Committee announced a new policy ensuring that only biological females can compete in female competitions at the Olympic Games.
The IOC’s Executive Board published the new policy on March 26, effective for the 2028 Los Angeles Games (LA28) and beyond. Under the new guidelines, eligibility for any women’s event will be determined through a one-time “SRY gene screening” – a quick test that detects the presence or absence of the gene segment on the Y chromosome that triggers male development in utero.
The International Olympic Committee announces new Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport.
Read: https://t.co/QcU5IVxyTi pic.twitter.com/3brHorx1k8
— IOC MEDIA (@iocmedia) March 26, 2026
Athletes who screen negative satisfy the requirement for life. Those who screen positive will remain eligible for men’s, mixed, or open categories.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry, a former Olympic swimmer herself, spoke on the importance of the change in terms of both fairness and safety for athletes around the world.
“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat. 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,” she said in the announcement.
The policy replaces all previous IOC guidance on gender, including its 2021 ruling, which drew some criticism for leaving too much of a “grey area” on gender.
Victory for Women’s Sports Continues
In April 2023, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) sent billboard trucks to the Women’s Final Four at Dallas’s American Airlines Center, demanding the NCAA “keep women’s sports female,” as previously reported by DX.
Those calls were eventually answered.
In February of 2025, the NCAA’s Board of Governors voted to update its “transgender” athlete participation policy, limiting competition in women’s sports to athletes assigned female at birth. The move came one day after President Trump signed an executive order threatening to pull federal funding from schools that permitted otherwise.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X after the IOC announced its gender update, writing, “You cannot change your sex. President Trump’s Executive Order protecting women’s sports made this happen!”
The NCAA policy relies on birth-certificate documentation – a standard that some women’s sports advocates could argue is insufficient, since birth certificates can be amended in most states. The IOC has gone further, opting for its direct SRY genetic screening, which the committee considers to be the “most accurate and least intrusive method currently available,” requiring only a saliva swab, cheek swab, or blood sample.
Notably, the new gender policy explicitly does not apply to “grassroots or recreational programs” and is not retroactive, meaning it will have no impact on athletes currently competing in international events ahead of LA28.
A survey conducted by the IOC while creating the new policy showed that more than 1,100 respondents believed “there was a strong consensus that fairness and safety in the female category required clear, science-based eligibility rules.”
Texas had already made some significant rulings on gender in sports. The Dallas Express has previously covered the state’s passage of SB 15, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott and taking effect on September 1, 2023, which required collegiate student-athletes in Texas to compete according to their biological sex.
The law was invoked when State Sen. Mayes Middleton demanded records from UT-Tyler after a “transgender” tennis player competed on the women’s team for two years before the legislation went into effect.
