Back to the future: Gender testing to be reintroduced to the Olympics

Screening for athletes in female events is to be mandatory from Los Angeles 2028, more than 30 years after it was dropped, when the IOC’s own Medical Commission chair called it “flagrant abuse”

When it comes to performing a flip-flop, has there ever been a bigger Olympic-sized one than that performed by the International Olympic Committee?

It was less than five years ago that the “IOC Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations” established that transgender athletes or those with differences of sexual development should not be assumed to have an unfair advantage solely based on their sex variations or physical appearance.

The new policy marked a shift toward a more decentralised, rights-based approach, but the IOC has now returned to the “one-size-fits-all” policy and implemented a new “science-led framework” to take effect for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, ensuring that the female category will be restricted to “biological females”.