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Reports that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will ban biological male trans athletes from women’s competitions have prompted reactions from figures involved in the protection of women’s sports.
Amid a global movement to ensure female-only participation in women’s sports, the IOC’s potential reform would mark one of the largest global measures to achieve that goal to date.
In the U.S., two cases are set to be heard by the Supreme Court over the issue, and could bring about a reform of similar scale. The Little vs. Hecox and West Virginia vs B.P.J. case, which will likely be heard by court justices in early 2026, could potentially result in a landmark precedent to protect women’s sports.
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Kriston Waggoner, president and CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom, which is helping to lead the defenses in those cases, provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing her reaction to reports of the potential IOC decision.
“I’m encouraged that the IOC is moving toward a long-overdue decision to ban men from competing in women’s Olympic events. Women don’t train their entire lives to become elite athletes just to be displaced by men and then gaslit for speaking up about it,” Waggoner said. “If the IOC follows through with this policy, it’s a welcome step in the right direction. But there’s still work to do to protect women & girls at every level of competition. In January, ADF will support WV & ID as they defend women’s school sports at the Supreme Court.”
Three other lawsuits in the U.S. that look to address previous instances of trans athletes in women’s sports, and bring about restitution for the women who were impacted, are being financed by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS).
ICONS co-founders Kim Jones and Marshi Smith have helped fundraise for Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA, Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the NCAA, and three former UPenn women’s swimmers against that university over the 2022 Lia Thomas scandal.
Jones and Smith addressed the reports of the IOC’s potential reform in statements provided to Fox News Digital.
“ICONS welcomes the IOC’s long overdue move to restore fairness and integrity in women’s Olympic competition. This shift only came after the world watched the safety and fairness of women’s events collapse in Paris, where male boxers violently took medals meant for women,” Smith said.
NEW OLYMPICS CHIEF CALLS FOR ‘PROTECTING’ WOMEN’S CATEGORY AMID GLOBAL TRANS ATHLETE WAVE
“It should never have required global outrage and lost gold medals to bring back common sense, but this marks a major step toward reality for the world’s most powerful sports committee. We’re eager to see how the IOC enforces its new eligibility rules, as strong and transparent enforcement is essential for real progress. Thankfully, the IOC can look to successful examples from World Athletics and World Boxing, which have recently implemented science based, sex based standards that protect women’s categories.
“It’s also important to clarify that this is not a ‘transgender’ or DSD ban, but a long needed clarification of eligibility — confirming that participation in the women’s category is based on genetic sex, ideally verified through a simple, accurate, and non invasive one time cheek swab to ensure fairness, safety, and integrity in competition.”
Jones added, “There are too many women who lost out on records, awards, and recognition, chances to compete on a world stage, because of bad policy and those women deserve an apology and a sincere effort to make things right. We look forward to a future with transparency and accountability for women in sports.”
The IOC’s current policy leaves it up to each individual sport’s governing body to make policies governing transgender athletes. But as the IOC changed its leadership, The Times of London reported on Monday, that its policies are set to change as well.
IOC President Kirsty Coventry called for “protecting” the women’s category in June and there was “overwhelming support” from IOC members to do the same.
“We understand that there’ll be differences depending on the sport … but it was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost to ensure fairness,” Coventry said at the time.
“But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area.”
The upcoming policy switch is likely to be announced at the IOC session in February before the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in Italy and comes after a presentation from Dr. Jane Thornton, the IOC’s medical and scientific director, last week, according to The Times.
Thornton’s presentation reportedly showed there were physical advantages in males, including those who took treatments to reduce testosterone levels. A source told the paper that the presentation was “very scientific” and unemotional.
“An update was given by the IOC’s Director of Health, Medicine and Science to the IOC Members last week during the IOC commission meetings,” an IOC spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “The working group is continuing its discussions on this topic and no decisions have been taken yet. Further information will be provided in due course.”
Athletes with DSD – those who were raised female but born with male traits – are set to be covered under the new policy, according to The Times. Olympic boxing had two major controversies over athletes who previously failed gender tests.
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Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting won gold medals in their respective weight classes in the women’s division despite major uproar. Khelif has insisted that they were female. Lin has not commented on the controversy since the Olympics were finished.
World Boxing has since implemented mandatory sex testing for its competitors and Khelif will not be able to compete unless the test is completed.
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