Poilievre backs J.K. Rowling's support for Olympic ban of transgender women from women's sports

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is supporting a ruling this week by the International Olympic Committee that bans transgender women from women's sports at the Games.

The policy change comes ahead of the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and aligns with an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump.

The new policy will require athletes to undergo mandatory genetic testing to establish their gender.

The test involves a screen of saliva, cheek swabs or blood samples to test for the SRY gene, which is a piece of DNA "typically found on the Y chromosome that initiates male sex development in utero," the policy said.

Poilievre shared a post on social media from author J.K. Rowling, who called the decision a "welcome return to fair sport for women and girls."

Rowling added, "I'll never forget the scandal of Paris 2024, when people who consider themselves supremely virtuous and progressive publicly cheered on men punching women."

The post included a photo of Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won a gold medal in Paris in 2024 amid intense controversy over misconceptions about her sex.

Poilievre reposted Rowling's message on X and added, "What she said."

Rowling and Trump have referred repeatedly to Khelif as male. She was born female and met IOC eligibility rules in 2024.

World Boxing implemented a policy last year to require all fighters to take a genetic test that would identify the presence of a Y chromosome.

Khelif recently told CNN she would take such a test if it was conducted by the IOC.

Chromosome testing was common in Olympic sports during the 20th century, but was largely abandoned in the 1990s because of numerous ambiguities that couldn't be easily resolved, collectively known as differences in sex