World Athletics has announced that all athletes competing in the female category at world-ranking events will now be required to take a one-time gene test. The change comes just months after controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships after failing a gender eligibility test.
Khelif was later allowed to compete in the 2024 Olympics. At the time, the Olympic Committee stated that “every person has the right to practise sport without discrimination.”
The new rule from World Athletics will take effect on September 1, just before the World Championships begin in Tokyo on September 13. The test will check for the SRY gene, which officials say helps determine biological sex.
Athletes will take the test via cheek swab or blood sample, depending on what is more convenient.
In a press release shared on July 30, the council said the testing will be supervised by Member Federations. This applies to all athletes in the female category.
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 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 release defined eligibility for the female category to include biological females, biological males who have not gone through male sexual development, and biological males with a difference of sex development who meet transitional conditions set by World Athletics.
It also said: “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 regulations add that the transitional rules do not apply to transgender women, because no transgender women are currently competing at the elite international level under these policies.
