Athletes praise Olympics transgender competitors ban

Athletes praised the International Olympic Committee’s decision to bar transgender women from competing in the 2028 Los Angeles Games, hailing it as a “huge” win for women’s sports.

“This IOC does the right thing and implements sex testing. At the LA Olympics, women’s sports will be women only,” Jennifer Sey, a former member of the US women’s national artistic gymnastics team, wrote on X shortly after the announcement.

“This is huge. Well done IOC.”

Sey, who is also the founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics — an apparel brand that says it aims to defend female-only competition — has been a vocal advocate on the issue.

Other former Olympians echoed similar support.

Sharron Davies — who represented Great Britain in the Olympics and European championships, and now serves in the UK’s House of Lords — also lauded the decision.

“I’m extremely please[d] the IOC has seen fit to use results, science & common sense to protect the female category & return fair & safe sport to women & girls,” she wrote on X, while reposting the IOC’s announcement.

“It saddens me it was given away so easily ten years ago. But it’s imperative we recognise all women & girls deserve their sport, free from males, not just the very best only.”

The new policy limits eligibility in women’s Olympic events to biological females, determined by a one-time SRY gene screening. It will take effect for the 2028 Summer Games in LA.

The IOC said the change is intended to “protect fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,” noting the rule is not retroactive and will not apply to grassroots or recreational sports.

It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed in the 2024 Paris Summer Games.

After an executive board meeting, the IOC published a 10-page policy document that also restricts female athletes such as two-time Olympic champion runner Caster Semenya with medical conditions known as differences in sex development, or DSD.

The IOC and its president, Kirsty Coventry, have wanted a clear policy instead of continuing to advise sports’ governing bodies, who previously drafted their own rules.

“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, said in a statement. “So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”

With Post wires

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