Kirsty Coventry, president of the Worldwide Olympic Committee, speaks on the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Friday in Milan. MILAN — International sports activities leaders have reached consensus on a brand new set of eligibility standards for transgender athletes, with the brand new coverage anticipated to be introduced inside the first half of this yr, the Worldwide Olympic Committee mentioned Saturday.
It could be the primary uniform coverage adopted by the IOC and worldwide sports activities federations, making use of to main occasions in dozens of sports activities, together with the Video games and world championships. At present, federations have their very own guidelines which might differ.
Particulars of the brand new coverage are unclear however it’s anticipated to severely limit the participation of transgender athletes who compete in ladies’s classes if they’ve undergone full male puberty earlier than any subsequent medical transition.
The IOC, beneath its first feminine president, Kirsty Coventry, took the lead in June, choosing a uniform method.
“Defending the feminine class is among the key reforms she needs to usher in,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams instructed a information convention on the Milan-Cortina Winter Video games on Saturday.
“I’d say it’s going to occur shortly, inside the subsequent few months.”
“It has been out to session part and we had the ‘pause and mirror’ (interval) on it,” Adams mentioned. “Typically talking there may be consensus inside the sporting motion. I feel you should have a brand new coverage within the first half of this yr. Do not maintain me to it, however that’s roughly the timescale.”
In September, Coventry arrange the “Safety of the Feminine Class” working group, made up of consultants in addition to representatives of worldwide federations, to look into how greatest to guard the feminine class in sports activities.
Earlier than Coventry’s choice, the IOC had balked at any common rule on transgender participation for the Video games, instructing worldwide federations in 2021 to give you their very own pointers. Beneath present guidelines, nonetheless in pressure, transgender athletes are eligible to participate within the Olympics as soon as cleared by their respective federations.
Solely a handful of brazenly transgender athletes have taken half within the Video games. New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard grew to become the primary brazenly transgender athlete to compete in a unique gender class to that assigned at beginning when the weightlifter took half within the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
At present, for instance, World Aquatics permits transgender athletes who’ve transitioned earlier than the age of 12, to compete. World Rugby bans all transgender athletes from elite-level competitions.
President Donald Trump has banned transgender athletes from competing in class, school and professional occasions within the feminine class in the US, as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer season Olympics.
Trump, who signed the “Conserving Males Out of Girls’s Sports activities” order in February, has mentioned he wouldn’t enable transgender athletes to compete on the LA Video games.
–Reuters, particular to Subject Stage Media
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