3 min readMar 31, 2026 06:05 AM IST
First published on: Mar 31, 2026 at 06:05 AM IST
Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned transgender women and athletes with differences in sex development, with some exceptions, from competing in the women’s categories for elite sporting events such as Olympic Games. The decision is apparently based on apprehensions about the unfair advantages these athletes may enjoy due to biological reasons. The IOC also mandated a once-in-a-lifetime SRY test or sex test for women athletes. Until now, the Committee had left the matter to international federations. The new policy, the latest in a series of bans and rollbacks, is ostensibly to ensure standardisation — since the “smallest margins” can change outcomes in elite sports. With the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics coming up, it may also have been motivated by a desire to avoid conflict with the Donald Trump administration, which has banned trans women from women’s sports.
Questions of accuracy and reliability surround the Sex-determining Region Y (SRY) test. Biological sex is determined by an interplay of chromosomal, gonadal, hormonal, and phenotypic factors. Only testing positive for the SRY gene does not mean that an athlete benefits from the hormone it produces. There is also no conclusive evidence that transgender women hold an athletic advantage over cisgender women. In fact, after the 1996 Olympics, the IOC had started phasing out universal sex testing, stating that it was an inaccurate metric to determine sex and athletic advantage, besides being unethical. Sex testing also disproportionately impacts women from the Global South and women of colour. Their genetic makeup diverges from the Eurocentric standards used for most testing and eligibility criteria.
The ban, alongside mandatory medical testing for women, undermines principles of equality—male athletes do not have to cross the medical test hurdle. It raises the entry barrier for athletes, especially from low-resource backgrounds, and violates women’s dignity and privacy. It also diverts attention from the many real obstacles women athletes face: Unequal funding, lack of access to training, pay disparity, gender-based violence, besides stigmatising transgender and DSD athletes. A policy intended to ensure fairness for women in sports needs to be grounded in scientific evidence. It cannot come at the cost of basic rights, and by making conditions for participation tougher for those it claims to protect.
