World Athletics has approved bombshell new measures to protect female athletes, introducing cheek swabbing to determine once and for all if an athlete is a biological woman.
The global body’s president Sebastian Coe said the decision taken by the World Athletics Council was further evidence his organization would ‘doggedly’ protect the female category, and comes after increased pressure from US president Donald Trump.
No timeline for the introduction of pre-clearance testing has been officially set out, but the PA news agency reports World Athletics’ intention is to have the testing in place for athletes wanting to compete in the female category at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
Coe said on Tuesday: ‘It’s important to do it because it maintains everything that we’ve been talking about, and particularly recently, about not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it.
‘We feel this is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.’
Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies MBE, who has spoken out vehemently on the issue of trans athletes competing in women’s events, was delighted by the news on Tuesday and called for medals to be re-issued for ‘unfairly robbed’ women.
Athletics chief Lord Sebastian Coe (left) has introduced bombshell new measures relating to transgender athletes after months of campaigning from US president Donald Trump (right)
The presence of Blaire Fleming on the San Jose State volleyball team caused controversy
She posted on social media platform X: ‘No more cheating in track and fields by males in a category for females. I’d very much like to see medals re issued for events ruined and women unfairly robbed!’
The decision comes after months of campaigning from Trump, who signed an executive order promising to block transgender athletes from competing in women’s sport within the first few days of his presidency.
The Education Department, headed up by former WWE executive Linda McMahon, has also urged athletics associations to vacate awards and records held by transgender women, amid a slew of controversial circumstances.
Earlier this year, a female college volleyball team forfeited a series of games against San Jose State over objections to trans player Blaire Fleming being on the team.
Wyoming star Macey Boggs said at the time: ‘I implore you to stop this injustice and preserve the future of female athletics.
‘I was [denied] the chance to play my final collegiate matches because we faced a situation no woman should have to face: either compete against a team rostering a male athlete on a woman’s scholarship, robbing us of fair and safe competition, or forfeit the rest of our season.’
In the basketball world, trans player Harriette Mackenzie – who stands at 6ft 2 – led her Vancouver Island team in points, rebounds and blocks, causing fury among the team’s rivals
Mackenzie began her transition in kindergarten having never undergone a male puberty
In the world of basketball, there was controversy over the abuse faced by a transgender player on Vancouver Island’s team.
The University, and its trans player Harriette Mackenzie, refused to play against Christian school Columbia Bible College back in January over alleged physical and verbal abuse in their prior meeting.
In a video posted to Instagram, Mackenzie – who stands at 6ft 2 and led 11-1 Vancouver Island in points, rebounds and blocks – accused CBC’s coach Taylor Claggett of applauding rough play on her.
Meanwhile, World Athletics conducted consultation on their cheek swab proposal earlier this year, and Coe said: ‘Overwhelmingly, the view has come back that this is absolutely the way to go, within the caveats raised (on testing not being too intrusive).’
Asked whether he felt the policy would stand up to legal challenge and scrutiny, Coe said: ‘Yes I am, but you accept the fact that that is the world we live in.
‘I would never have set off down this path to protect the female category in sport if I’d been anything other than prepared to take the challenge head on. We’ve been to the Court of Arbitration on our DSD (difference of sexual development) regulations.
‘They have been upheld, and they have again been upheld after appeal. So we will doggedly protect the female category, and we’ll do whatever is necessary to do it.’
It means the likes of BBC Sports Personality of the Year Keely Hodgkinson (left) and fellow British athlete Dina Asher-Smith (right) will have to undergo the ‘pre-clearance tests’
Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies MBE, who has spoken out vehemently on the issue of trans athletes competing in women’s events, was delighted by the news on Tuesday
A World Athletics working group on gender diverse athletes said in February that the required test will be for the SRY gene and, if required, testosterone levels, either via cheek swab with any necessary follow-up, or via dry blood spot analysis.
The SRY gene is almost always on the Y chromosome, which plays a crucial role in determining male sex characteristics. The working group said that the test in this context was ‘a highly accurate proxy for biological sex’.
The working group said new evidence had prompted it to bring forward the proposal.
It said there was now evidence that testosterone suppression in DSD and transgender athletes could only ever partly mitigate the overall male advantage in the sport of athletics.
It also said that an exclusive focus on whether an athlete had been through male puberty was wrong, since ‘new evidence clarifies that there is already an athletically significant performance gap before the onset of puberty’.
Coe is ‘confident’ pre-clearance testing will stand up to both legal challenge and scrutiny
He has vowed to ‘doggedly’ protect the female category (pictured: USA star Gabby Thomas)
The consultation document stated: ‘The childhood or pre-pubertal performance gap in the sport of athletics specifically is three to five per cent in running events, and higher in throwing and jumping events.’
Coe said the consultation was ‘widely held’ and ‘exhaustive’ and had received feedback from over 70 individual groups.
The approval of the recommendations comes less than a week after Coe stood on a reform ticket to be president of the International Olympic Committee, including the protection of the female category within sport.
He secured only eight of the 97 IOC member votes however, with Zimbabwe’s sports minister Kirsty Coventry securing a majority in the first round of voting.
