IOC reintroduces sex verification screening for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced it will reintroduce sex verification screening for women’s categories at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, a move that immediately drew criticism from South African runner Caster Semenya.

Semenya, a two-time Olympic champion in the 800 metres, said the decision amounts to “a disrespect for women” and argued it will harm women, particularly in Africa and the Global South. She spoke in Cape Town on the sidelines of a sporting competition.

What the IOC changed

The IOC said the women’s category at the Olympic Games and other IOC events will be restricted to “biological females,” which would bar transgender women from competing in women’s events. The policy applies across individual and team sports under the IOC’s umbrella.

Under the new framework, eligibility will be determined through a one-time SRY gene screening. The IOC said the test can be conducted using a saliva sample, cheek swab, or blood sample, and would be performed once in an athlete’s lifetime.

Leadership and stated rationale

Semenya also said she was disappointed the measure was adopted under IOC President Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe. Coventry said the policy is “based on science” and was led by medical experts.

Coventry added that, at the Olympics, small performance differences can decide medals, and argued it would not be fair for “biological males” to compete in the women’s category. She also said safety concerns apply in some sports.

How this fits with past Olympic rules

The IOC previously used chromosomal sex testing from 1968 through the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, then dropped it in 1999. The earlier approach was abandoned after criticism from parts of the scientific community over effectiveness and after pressure from the IOC’s athletes commission.

The latest shift also replaces the IOC’s 2021 approach, which had left eligibility policies largely to individual international federations. Several sports—including swimming, athletics, cycling and rowing—have adopted bans, while others have allowed transgender women to compete if testosterone levels were reduced, typically via medication.

Semenya’s longer legal and sporting context

Semenya has been a prominent figure in disputes over eligibility rules affecting some athletes with naturally high testosterone levels and typically male chromosome patterns. Her legal fight has included proceedings involving World Athletics, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and Switzerland’s Supreme Court.

In 2025, she won a partial ruling at the European Court of Human Rights. In a 15–2 decision, the court’s highest chamber found that some of her fair-hearing rights had been violated in Switzerland, but the judgment did not overturn World Athletics rules that effectively ended her ability to race the 800 metres.

Political and market-relevant signals

The IOC’s move reduces a potential flashpoint with the United States government ahead of the Los Angeles Games. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January 2025 banning transgender athletes from women’s sport, and later claimed credit for the IOC’s decision in a social media post.

Separately, the IOC’s policy comes after a dispute at the 2024 Paris Olympics women’s boxing competition involving Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting. The IOC allowed both to compete after they were excluded from the International Boxing Association’s 2023 world championships; both won gold in Paris, and Lin has since been cleared to compete in women’s events run by World Boxing, which will oversee the sport at LA 2028.