The international governing authority “World Athletics” is paving the way towards complete exclusion of trans and intersex women from sports
On February 10th 2025, World Athletics announced a new stakeholder consultation as part of the revision of its eligibility criteria for the Female Category at the elite level, alongside revisions to the existing DSD (Differences of Sex Development) and Transgender Regulations. The revision, led by World Athletics’ Working Group on Gender Diverse Athletes, claims to be based on “new scientific evidence” and, according to the Federation’s president, is intended to “preserve the integrity of the Female Category in sports”.
However, rather than an impartial consultation process that seeks genuine stakeholders’ inputs and submissions, the framework of the consultation already pre-determined the focus and outcomes of the consultation in favour of further restricting trans and intersex women from competition. Unsurprisingly, these outcomes are framed with the clear intentions to exclude the participation of trans and intersex athletes in the female category.
The decision to once again revise the guidelines – which were last revised only in 2023 – is no doubt encouraged by the ongoing global targeting of the human rights of LGBTI persons and the current political situation in the US, including the Executive Order signed by US President Trump to ban all trans woman athletes from sports.
The objectives of the consultation include:
- formally affirming a biologically exclusive definition of the Female Category;
- revising eligibility regulations to align with this exclusionary framework;
- merging DSD and Transgender Regulations with a clear impact on restricting DSD athletes while offering only vague reassurances about addressing their reliance interests1;
- Introducing a pre-clearance requirement for all athletes competing in the Female Category;
- considering forward initiatives to support “elite gender diverse XY athletes” – a framing that misgenders intersex and trans women and implies they should not compete in the Female Category.
OII Europe expresses their serious concern over the biased framing of this stakeholder consultation, its predetermined exclusionary goals, and its misrepresentation of science to justify discrimination, based on biologically essentialist norms. As we outline below, the consultation process fails to reflect the diversity of human bodies and ignores the scientific complexities in athletic performance.
The decision to further tighten the exclusionary criteria comes despite the absence of scientific consensus on whether higher testosterone levels in trans and intersex women provide a meaningful performance advantage, or any supposed advantages resulting from trans women athletes having undergone male puberty. In 2016, in the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Health affirmed that “there is insufficient clinical evidence to establish that those (intersex) women are afforded a ‘substantial performance advantage’ warranting exclusion”.
World Athletics argues that sport must be divided into sex categories in order to protect the ‘integrity’ of the female category, because ‘of the significant advantages in size, strength and power enjoyed (on average) by men over women from puberty onwards, due in large part to men’s much higher levels of circulating testosterone’. World Athletics stated that while women with naturally elevated testosterone are technically not cheating, they still gain an unfair advantage from having a more masculine physiology. And yet, there have been no equivalent regulations specifying ‘fair’ levels of naturally occurring testosterone in men2.
However, research indicates that there is no single biomarker that determines performance. World Athletics’ decision to base their exclusion solely on testosterone levels above a certain limit is therefore patently incorrect and biased, since scientific evidence shows that bodies are complex systems, with a multitude of different factors informing and impacting athletic performance; of which testosterone is only one of many factors (e.g. oxygen uptake, capillary density, or the ability to tolerate high levels of lactic acid) that impact performance.
Another 2021 study by E-alliance3 concluded that there is no direct or consistent research at this moment, affirming that trans women have an athletic advantage at any stage of their transition (e.g. cross-sex hormones, gender-confirming surgery) and, therefore, competitive sport policies that place restrictions on trans people need to be considered and revised.
While most men (but not all) produce more testosterone than women, and some women produce more testosterone than other women, it is deceptive to focus on quantity, as it suggests that small amounts of testosterone have small effects and vice versa. However, research shows that the levels of testosterone don’t predict how the human body uses them, nor how much of it is used. As Åsa Ekvall and Dr. Sandra Meeuwsen explain in their 2023 research document for the Dutch Olympic Committee4, the human body has different types of receptors that the testosterone in our blood can bind to. These receptors vary in number and efficiency between individuals. Someone may have low testosterone levels but highly efficient and numerous receptors, and someone else may have high levels of testosterone but very inefficient receptors, leading to the same amount being used in both bodies. The current proposed revised eligibility criteria do not seem to make room for accounting for these differences and how they may or may not impact athletic performance.
Furthermore, a systematic review of literature about transgender people and sport by Jones et al.5 found that rather than trans women being a threat to the cis-women around them, it was the other way around. Many transgender people do not exercise because of the lack of inclusive and comfortable environments, as well as the restrictive policies for competition. The same is true for intersex women.
For intersex women for example, many are assigned female at birth and live their entire lives as women. These new eligibility criteria completely dismiss this reality, insisting that intersex women should compete with men, on the only basis that their sex characteristics happen to differ from endosex women (in this case because of the SRY gene/XY chromosome). Some women only find out that they are intersex when their gender is called into question in the context of competing at elite level by sporting bodies. Forcing these women to compete as men, due to higher testosterone levels or the presence of XY chromosomes is a violation of their human rights.
Secondly, the proposition of World Athletics to merge the current DSD and Transgender Regulations is problematic in multiple ways. Grouping together trans and intersex athletes in one category, and justifying this approach by claiming that they are the same biologically, is scientifically incorrect. No two intersex athletes are the same, especially in terms of biomechanics, as more than 40 intersex variations exist. Trans athletes also experience a wide range of different bodily experiences, and their experiences are not the same as those of intersex women. Simplifying biological realities in order to purposefully exclude two different groups, is irresponsible and undermines the integrity of elite-level sports as a whole. Especially, when these two groups represent a very small minority within women’s sports.
Furthermore, the argument used by World Athletics that competition rules should only be “sex-exclusive” at elite level, but that anyone can participate at amateur level, ignores the ways in which the two are inextricably linked. They state “The aspect of the sport of Athletics that is elite competition properly draws lines on the basis of biological sex, but the sport as a whole, for example at the non-elite and recreational levels, has a place for everyone”. However, exclusion from competition in elite sport directly impacts on inclusion in sports in general. The tightening of rules trickles down directly to grassroots sports, and to youth participation in sports, in that it keeps intersex as well as trans children and teens from sports, including from pursuing a career in professional sports. This not only has major health impacts, including mental health impacts, but the proposed new regulations will therefore also affect participation in sports in school. Leaving trans and intersex women out of sports, with the only option being to compete “in out of stadium events” constitutes outright discrimination and a de-facto exclusion from any elite-level sports.
World Athletics states that their DSD and Transgender Regulations will “respect and preserve the dignity and privacy of individuals;” that World Athletics “does not judge or question gender identity” and that World Athletics “never has and never would impose any obligation to undergo surgery.” At the same time, they require that “in advance of and as a pre-condition for any athlete’s competition in the Female Category at elite level, World Athletics should be in possession of test results that establish their eligibility. The required test will be for the SRY gene and, if required, testosterone levels.”
These two statements are incompatible. Firstly, because it implies that World Athletics has an unchecked authority to investigate any women it deems ‘suspicious’, which in fact does not respect a person’s gender identity, but rather questions it. And while the regulations go on to state that ‘no athlete will be forced to undergo any surgery and/or treatment under these regulations,’ it also states that those who fail to comply are non-eligible for competition in the Female Category. It seems to us that the limit between consent and coercion gets rather blurred, leaving athletes with little to no choice.
We are deeply concerned that other major sporting bodies will follow suit at the end of the consultation period and its resulting findings, which could mean the total exclusion of trans and intersex women from participation in any sports at elite-level, as women. One of the consultation questions even goes so far as to directly ask “how World Athletics can best educate the public about its “biological sex-exclusive design for the Female Category”, signaling that the outcome has already been decided before engaging stakeholders. Another question assumes that the new eligibility conditions will negatively impact certain groups of athletes, it states “Are there ways to minimise or remedy the adverse impacts of the new eligibility conditions,[…]” suggesting that World Athletics is already prepared to accept the harm these policies will cause. Gender should not be a variable breaking down elite sport careers, nor should it be a threshold to participate in grassroots sport, which will also be impacted as detailed above.
The impact of these revised criteria will not only impact trans and intersex women, but endosex women too, because they are founded on historically patriarchal structures that have used the concept of strict binary sex categories to assert white supremacy, relegating anyone who falls outside the narrow definition, to a lesser category of womanhood. These boundaries are upheld by violently enforcing them upon the bodies of any person who is seen as ‘non-conforming.’ As a result, athletes who have been disproportionately targeted to undergo sex testing and consequently forbidden to compete in the women’s category often come from the Global South and are women of colour. The policing, in particular of intersex women’s bodies and the dismissal of women deemed ‘too masculine’ under the guise of fairness, has a chilling effect on all women’s participation in sports.
The decision to once again revise the guidelines – which were last revised only in 2023 – is no doubt encouraged by the ongoing global targeting of the human rights of LGBTI persons and the current political situation in the US, including the Executive Order signed by US President Trump to ban all trans woman athletes from sports.
It is blatantly misogynistic and discriminatory to view women athletes as weaker than men, as having a ‘disadvantage’ to their male counterparts and as being in need of protection. Our focus when it comes to protection should instead be protection from the forms of violence experienced by trans, gender diverse and intersex athletes, which can be considered the extreme manifestation of a general pervasive and systemic violence and discrimination faced by women and girls in sports, including both sexual and non-sexual violence and abuse perpetrated by coaches, trainers, sponsors, and others. Ensuring the health, safety, privacy, bodily autonomy and integrity of all women and girls in sports is crucial, including trans, gender diverse and intersex athletes.
Sport has the power to transform lives. All women and girls deserve the right to participate in sports free from abuse, violence, and discrimination. All women and girls who play sports deserve to have health, safety and dignity be respected, no matter their gender identity or sex characteristics. Sports empower trans and intersex people, offer a sense of community, build essential social skills, and help dispel entrenched notions about the capacities and limits of the body. We call for non-exclusionary regulations that foreground the positive role that sports play in society and ensure that all people, regardless of their gender identity and sex characteristics, can participate in sports safely and equitably.
Footnotes:
- ‘Reliance interest’ refers to the stake of an individual or party in a contract that has been violated, desiring to be reimbursed for any losses or expenses arising from depending on the contract ↩︎
- See the the Dutch Olympic Committee * Sports Federation (NOC*NSF) and ESPRIT Research Document on Sex, Gender & Elite Sport, Dr. Åsa Ekvall en Dr. Sandra Meeuwsen, 23 February 2023, P.5. Available from: https://www.eur.nl/en/news/research-document-sex-gender-and-inclusion-elite-sport ↩︎
- E-alliance, Research hub for gender+ equity in sport, (2021). Transgender Women Athletes and Elite Sport: A Scientific Review. Available at: https://cces.ca/transgender-women-athletes-and-elite-sport-scientific-review ↩︎
- See Åsa Ekvall en Dr. Sandra Meeuwsen, Research Document on Sex, Gender & Inclusion in Elite Sport, by ESPRIT and the Dutch Olympic Committee * Sports Federation, 23 February 2023, p.4. Available at: https://www.eur.nl/en/news/research-document-sex-gender-and-inclusion-elite-sport ↩︎
- Bethany Alice Jones, Jon Arcelus, Walter Pierre Bouman, and Emma Haycraft, Sport and Transgender People: A Systematic Review, of the Literature Relating to Sport Participation and Competitive Sport Policies, Sports Med (2017) 47:701–716. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27699698/ ↩︎
