“All athletes wishing to compete in the female category at the World Championships are required to undergo a one-time test for the SRY gene – a reliable indicator of biological sex. This is to be conducted via a cheek swab or blood test, whichever is more convenient.”
The purpose
Former swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed against the biologically male transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in college, said in a post on X that the Olympic fight “is glorified male violence against women.” She may as well reference an Olympic boxing match that came under great scrutiny during the Paris Games.
What World Athletics wants to do is to put the gender issue aside to get on with managing the sport of athletics. There are a few serious distractions in the sport now. The most complex is what to do for athletes who want to compete as women. For any rules to work, a number of factors determining what a female is need to be established and agreed upon. Then, a test to identify who is eligible needs to be reliable and available.
One concern with the regulations and test is athletes who live with the condition called Disorders (or differences) in Sexual Development.
“According to the Cleveland Clinic, “Disorders of sexual development are conditions where a person’s reproductive organs and genitals are ‘mismatched’ at birth. Examples include male chromosomes (XY) and genitalia that appear female (vulva) or female chromosomes (XX) and genitalia that appear male (penis). Some people with DSDs have characteristics of both sexes.”
According to the National Health Service in Great Britain, “Differences in sex development (DSD) is a group of rare conditions involving genes, hormones and reproductive organs, including genitals. It means a person’s sex development is different to most other people’s.
“Sometimes the term Disorders of Sex Development is used, as is Variations in Sex Characteristics (VSC) or Diverse Sex Development. Some people prefer to use the term intersex.”
World Athletics currently bans transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women’s events. The organization requires female DSD athletes whose bodies produce high testosterone levels to lower them in order to be eligible.
During the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Canadian Melissa Bishop competed in the 800m final event, finishing fourth. The three athletes in front of her were each suspected to be DSD, including Caster Semenya from South Africa, who is.
Boxing in the Olympics
An Algerian boxer with male chromosomes defeated an Italian female boxer in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games boxing match. The fight was stopped at 46 seconds after Imane Khelif landed a devastating punch to the head.
According to the International Boxing Association, Khelif, who has XY chromosomes, is a biological male.
The event was repeated on social media and cast a pall on the Olympic Games and the sport of boxing. Boxing was already reeling from years of leadership issues that nearly removed the sport from the quadrennial event.
New regulations
The World Athletics Council has approved new regulations concerning eligibility conditions to compete in the female category for world ranking competitions.
The new regulations come into effect on 1 September 2025. They will be applied to the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 that begins on 13 September.
The testing protocol will be overseen by Member Federations as they prepare their athletes and teams for the Championships in Tokyo.
Commenting on the new regulations and SRY test, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said, “The philosophy that we hold dear in World Athletics is the protection and the promotion of the integrity 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. The test to confirm biological sex is a very important step in ensuring this is the case.
“We are saying, at the 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.
“We particularly want to thank our Member Federations for their support and commitment in the implementation of these new regulations.”
The new regulations follow recommendations from the Gender Diverse Athlete Working Group approved by Council in March 2025. The Working Group spent over a year studying developments in law, science, sports and society concerning gender-diverse athletes. The group made the following recommendations, which were widely consulted on earlier this year:
• Formally affirm the design of and goals for the female category.
• Revise the eligibility regulations so that they are consistent with the design and goals.
• Merge the DSD (differences of sex development) and Transgender Regulations, and, if the effect is to restrict opportunities for DSD athletes, adopt measures to address the reliance interest of those who are currently in the pipeline.
• Adopt a pre-clearance requirement for all athletes competing in the female category.
• Consider forward initiatives, including supporting elite gender diverse XY athletes.
The female athlete category is defined in the Eligibility Rule 3.5, which states that only the following athletes may compete in this category:
a. Biological females.
b. Biological females who have used testosterone as part of male gender-affirming treatment further to a Therapeutic Use Exemption granted in accordance with World Athletics’ Anti-Doping Rules may not compete in the female category until the passing of a period of time after their last use of testosterone (the period of time will be not shorter than four years and will be determined by World Athletics on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration all relevant factors including the timing, duration, dosages and effects of the male gender-affirming treatment).
c. Biological males who have Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and therefore have not gone through male sexual development including any type of male puberty.
d. Biological males with a difference of sex development who satisfy the transitional provisions issued by World Athletics.
The transitional provisions do not apply to transgender women as there are none competing at the elite international level under the current regulations.
The new female athlete category regulations, which come into effect on 1 September, will be implemented with the following standing commitments:
• World Athletics does not judge or question gender identity;
• World Athletics respects and preserves the dignity and privacy of individuals;
• World Athletics strictly observes confidentiality obligations and complies with data protection laws;
• World Athletics never has and never would impose any obligation to undergo surgery.
World Athletics
