FEMALE ATHLETES MUST TAKE ONE-TIME SEX TEST TO COMPETE AT TOP EVENTS- WORLD ATHLETICS
By: Gyang Dakwo
Female track and field athletes will now need to take a one-time genetic test to prove they are biologically female if they want to take part in world-ranking competitions.
This new rule was announced by World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF)will begin on September 1. It will be first applied at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, which starts on September 13.
The test is called an SRY gene test, and it checks if a person has Y chromosomes, which are found in males. It can be done with a simple cheek swab or a blood test. Once an athlete takes and passes the test, she will not need to do it again.
World Athletics made this decision just nine days after the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee also changed its rules. The US move followed a new executive order by President Donald Trump called “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which was signed in February. That order bars transgender women from taking part in female sports categories in the country.
World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, said the change was made to protect the fairness and future of women’s sport. “It is really important in a sport that is permanently trying to attract more women that they enter a sport believing there is no biological glass ceiling,” Coe said. “The test to confirm biological sex is a very important step in ensuring this is the case.”
He added, “We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female. It was always very clear to me and the World Athletics Council that gender cannot trump biology.”
Coe also thanked the member federations for standing by the decision and for helping with its roll-out.
This decision comes after many years of debate in athletics about who should be allowed to compete in women’s events. People have raised concerns about biological advantages when transgender athletes and those with differences of sex development (DSD) take part. DSD is a condition where a person’s inner and outer sex features do not match, and it is sometimes called intersex.
Under current rules, transgender women who have gone through male puberty are not allowed to compete in female categories. Also, female athletes with high natural testosterone levels due to DSD must lower those levels if they want to take part in women’s events.
This latest move by World Athletics is expected to spark more global conversation, but the body says it is a step forward in keeping women’s sport fair and equal for all.
