IOC urged to drop reported gender test plans for female athletes

March 18 : More than 80 human rights and sport advocacy groups have called on the International Olympic Committee to abandon reported plans to introduce universal genetic sex testing for female athletes and impose a blanket ban on transgender and intersex competitors.

A joint statement released on Tuesday by the Sport & Rights Alliance (SRA), ILGA World, Humans of Sport and dozens of other groups warned that the measures that will reportedly be recommended by the IOC's Protection of the Female Category Working Group would set back gender equity in sport.

"Multiple sources have said the group has advised the IOC to require all women and girl athletes to undergo genetic sex verification and to bar transgender and intersex athletes from competing in women's events. The IOC has not publicly confirmed the recommendations," the statement said.

Reuters has contacted the IOC for comment.

The IOC, which in February said it would announce the working group's findings in the first half of 2026, discontinued universal sex testing after the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

It has long declined to apply any universal rule on transgender participation in the Olympics and in 2021 instructed international federations to come up with their own guidelines.

Several major federations, including athletics, swimming and rugby union, have since barred athletes who have gone through male puberty from competing in the women's class.

The SRA's executive director Andrea Florence said sex testing and a blanket ban policy would be a "catastrophic erosion of women's rights and safety".

"Gender policing and exclusion harms all women and girls, and undermines the very dignity and fairness the IOC claims to uphold," she added.

Jon Pike, an English academic in the field of