IOC to Require DNA Screening for Women’s Events at 2028 Los Angeles Olympics

GENEVA — Athletes seeking to compete in women’s events at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics will have to pass a one-time genetic test under new International Olympic Committee rules approved March 26, a sweeping policy change that bars transgender women and most intersex athletes from the female category.

A single-gene test as the eligibility line

Under the “Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport,” adopted by the IOC Executive Board after meetings in Geneva, any athlete entering a women’s event at an IOC competition must undergo genetic screening for the SRY gene, a key trigger of male sex development typically found on the Y chromosome.

• SRY-negative athletes will be deemed eligible for the women’s category.
• SRY-positive athletes will, in almost all cases, be excluded from women’s events at the Olympic Games and other IOC-run competitions, beginning with Los Angeles 2028.

“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry told reporters. “So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”

The IOC says the rules are “evidence-based and expert-informed” and intended to protect “fairness, safety and integrity” in women’s sport. The policy is not retroactive and will not affect results from Paris 2024 or the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games. It also does not apply to community or recreational sport.

Who is affected

In practice, the policy amounts to a blanket ban on transgender women in Olympic women’s events, regardless of legal gender recognition, hormone therapy, or years since transition. It also affects many athletes with differences of sex development (DSD)—sometimes described as intersex—who are SRY-positive but have competed in women’s categories.

The IOC said narrow exceptions will apply for a small set of conditions such as complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, in which individuals carry SRY but their bodies do not respond to testosterone and are considered by medical experts not to gain a performance advantage from male-typical puberty. Outside those diagnoses, SRY-positive athletes will be ineligible for women’s events at IOC competitions.

Scientific and human rights criticism

SRY—short for “sex-determining region Y”—typically initiates the development of testes and male internal structures in embryos. IOC officials describe SRY as highly accurate evidence of male sex development and say it offers a uniform standard across sports.

Critics, including intersex advocacy organizations and some sports scientists, argue SRY is an imperfect proxy for athletic advantage. They point to people with XY chromosomes and SRY who do not experience male-typical testosterone effects, and to atypical chromosomal arrangements where the gene does not align neatly with anatomy or puberty history.

Human rights organizations also warned the rule revives a contentious history of sex testing in women’s sport. Past methods—including invasive physical exams and chromosomal screening—were eventually abandoned amid criticism that they were degrading, scientifically crude and disproportionately targeted women of color and those from the Global South.

While the IOC says the new testing is universal rather than suspicion-based, advocates raised concerns about privacy, data protection, and forced medical disclosure for athletes whose results reveal intersex traits.

The IOC counters that a universal process is more objective than ad hoc investigations.

“Every female athlete is treated the same,” an IOC medical official said. “There are no accusations, no selective testing. This is a standard part of the eligibility process, just like anti-doping controls.”

A sharp break from recent IOC guidance

The decision reverses the IOC’s recent trend away from centralized sex-eligibility rules.

• In 2015, the IOC allowed transgender women to compete if they declared a female gender identity and kept testosterone below a set threshold for at least 12 months.
• In 2021, the IOC issued a framework urging sport-by-sport regulations, warning against systematic exclusion based on gender identity or sex variations, and discouraging invasive verification.

The March 26 decision returns to a centralized approach, requiring genetic testing for every woman who seeks to compete at the Olympics.

Federations, precedents and the politics surrounding Los Angeles 2028

The policy follows tighter rules by several international federations, including World Athletics and World Aquatics, which have already restricted transgender participation and increased limits on some DSD athletes. World Athletics introduced SRY-based screening for women’s track and field in 2025, with limited exceptions; the IOC’s move effectively extends a similar model across all Olympic sports.

The shift comes amid heightened disputes over sex, gender and fairness in elite sport, including controversy at Paris 2024 involving boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Chinese Taipei, who were barred from a 2023 world championship under opaque eligibility rules but cleared to compete at the Olympics.

Coventry said the new policy was the product of a long-running working group and not driven by political pressure. “There has been no external pressure on the IOC,” she said. “This has been a priority for us for some time, to give clarity and confidence to female athletes.”

Still, the timing places the policy amid U.S. political debate. In February 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which reinterpreted Title IX protections for federally funded education based on sex assigned at birth and directed U.S. agencies to press international sports bodies—including the IOC—to adopt a “biological sex” standard ahead of Los Angeles 2028. After the IOC announcement, the White House praised the move as aligned with the executive order.

What comes next

International federations will still write detailed rules for non-Olympic competitions, but for the Games they must apply the IOC’s SRY-based definition of the women’s category. Many are expected to align world championships and professional circuits with the new standard to reduce confusion and legal risk.

Legal challenges are likely, including potential appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on non-discrimination grounds in the Olympic Charter, and possible human rights litigation—echoing earlier disputes involving South African runner Caster Semenya.

National laws may also collide with the Olympic framework, particularly in countries where gender identity is protected and transgender women are legally recognized as female.

For Los Angeles organizers, the ruling adds logistical complexity: administering testing for thousands of athletes, handling appeals, protecting medical confidentiality, and navigating potential immigration issues for transgender and intersex competitors.

By the time the Olympic flame is lit in 2028, every woman on the start line will have taken a test most fans will never see—and for a small but significant group of athletes, one hidden stretch of DNA will determine whether they can compete in the world’s biggest sporting event.