IOC decision on gender eligibility to come in early 2026, says president Kirsty Coventry
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International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry hopes a decision on transgender participation at the Games will come in early 2026.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LAUSANNE – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Dec 10 it would announce eligibility criteria for transgender athletes early in 2026, after months of deliberation as it seeks to find a consensus on how to protect the female category.
The issue has been a source of controversy, with no universal rule in place for the participation of transgender athletes at the Olympics.
The IOC, under new president Kirsty Coventry, did a U-turn in June, deciding to take the lead in setting eligibility criteria for Olympic participation, having previously handed responsibility to the individual sports federations.
In September, she set up the “Protection of the Female Category” working group, made up of experts and representatives of international federations, to look into how best to protect the female category in sports.
“We will find ways to find a consensus that has all aspects covered,” she said, following an IOC executive board meeting.
“Maybe it is not the easiest thing to do but we will try our best, so when we talk about the female category we are protecting the female category.”
She added that a decision would come in the first months of 2026.
“We want to make sure we have spoken to all stakeholders, taken adequate time to cross the Ts and dot the Is. The group is working extremely well.
“I don’t want to try to constrain the working group by saying they need to have a specific deadline, but I am hopeful in the next couple of months and definitely within the first quarter of next year we will have a clear decision and way forward.”
Before Coventry’s move in June, the IOC had long refused to apply any universal rule on transgender participation for the Games, instructing international federations in 2021 to come up with their own guidelines. Under current rules, still in force, transgender athletes are eligible to take part in the Olympics.
Only a handful of openly transgender athletes have taken part in the Games. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard became the first to compete in a different gender category to that assigned at birth when she took part in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 at age 43. She failed in all three snatch lifts.
Currently, some international federations have rules in place, but others have not yet reached that stage.
President Donald Trump has banned transgender athletes from competing in sports in schools in the United States, which civil society groups say infringes on the rights of trans people, as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Mr Trump, who signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order in February, has said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete at the LA Games. REUTERS
