The IOC currently does not have universal rules regarding the participation of transgender athletes in the Olympic Games.
The International Olympic Committee has announced that it will announce eligibility criteria for transgender athletes early next year after months of deliberations to find a consensus on how to protect the women’s category.
The issue is controversial, and there are no universal rules regarding transgender athletes’ participation in the Olympics.
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The IOC, under new president Kirsty Coventry, reversed course in June and decided to take the lead in setting Olympic eligibility criteria, after previously delegating responsibility to individual sporting bodies, leading to confusion over different approaches.
In September, Coventry City Council established a “Protecting the Female Category” working group, made up of experts and representatives from international federations, to consider how best to protect the female category in sport.
“We will find a way to find an agreement that covers all aspects,” Coventry said at a press conference after Wednesday’s IOC executive board meeting.
“Maybe it’s not the easiest thing to do, but we do our best. So when we talk about the female category, we defend the female category.”
Mr Coventry said a decision would be made in the first months of 2026.
“We want to talk to all the stakeholders and make sure we have enough time to intersperse the Iss across the Ts,” she said.
“The group is working very well. I’m not going to tie up the working group by saying we need to set a specific deadline, but we’re hopeful that we’ll get some clear decisions and a way forward within the next few months and certainly within the first quarter of next year. I think we’re all looking forward to that,” said Coventry, a former Olympic swimming champion.
Before the Coventry decision in June, the IOC had long refused to apply universal rules on transgender participation in competitions, and had told international federations to develop their own guidelines for 2021. Under the current rules, which are still in place, transgender athletes are eligible to participate in the Olympics.
Only a handful of openly transgender athletes have participated in the Olympics. When New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard competed as a weightlifter at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, she became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a gender category different from the one assigned to her at birth.
Some international federations now have rules in place, while others have not yet reached that stage.
As Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics, US President Donald Trump has banned transgender athletes from participating in sports in US schools, a move civil society groups say violates transgender rights.
President Trump, who signed an order in February to ban men from women’s sports, said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete in the Los Angeles Games.
