Olympic gender ban 'discriminatory and not supported by science'

Of the tens of thousands of athletes who have participated in Olympic events since 1999, just one has identified as a transgender woman – Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand. She did not place in her event in 2021.

More than 100 human rights, sports and scientific groups, including the UN, have criticised the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) new gender eligibility guidelines as “a blunt and discriminatory response that is not supported by science and violates international human rights law”.

The IOC’s new guidelines, announced on Friday, mandate genetic sex tests for all athletes competing in its women’s categories, as well as blanket bans of people who identify as transgender, intersex or with sex differences.

Athletes in these categories have been allowed to compete in Olympic events since the IOC scrapped mandatory sex testing in 1999, which was deemed arbitrary, inaccurate, expensive, and discriminatory.

New IOC president Kirsty Coventry reversed the organisation’s position and backflipped on its own 2021 Framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non-Discrimination, a policy informed by extensive consultation and research, which recognised the need for evidence-based, sport-specific and rights-respecting rules.

“Mandatory genetic sex testing and rigid biological criteria as a condition for participation in the women’s category violates fundamental and universal human rights … including the right to equality, non-discrimination, dignity, privacy, and bodily autonomy,” said Professor Paula Gerber, an international human rights lawyer at Monash University.

“As several UN independent experts have noted, binary definitions of sex reinforce harmful stereotypes and erode progress toward substantive gender equality. Any testing of athletes needs to be individualised and evidence-based, not arbitrary or degrading.” 

The new guidelines were developed by a committee which has not publicly shared the scientific data that the IOC claims informed their position. Ms Coventry claimed all women athletes will be tested for the SRY gene, which multiple medical experts have stated is unreliable and reductive.

“The IOC’s move to mandate sex testing across the female category risks undermining both evidence-based policy and athlete wellbeing, while diverting attention from the real priorities in women’s sport,” said Dr Ada Cheung, a professor of endocrinology at the University of Melbourne.

“The best available data … shows that transgender women receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy are not meaningfully different from cisgender women in key performance-related measures such as muscle mass, strength, body composition, or cardiorespiratory fitness, and in many aspects have a disadvantage."

Of the tens of thousands of athletes who have participated in Olympic events since 1999, just one has identified as a transgender woman – Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand. She did not place in her event.

- The Guardian