World Athletics has voted to ban transgender women from elite female competitions.
Speaking after the ruling, which comes into effect on 31 March, the World Athletics president, Sebastian Coe, accepted that the decision would be contentious but said his sport had been guided by the “overarching principle” of fairness, as well as the science around physical performance and male advantage.
“Decisions are always difficult when they involve conflicting needs and rights between different groups, but we continue to take the view that we must maintain fairness for female athletes above all other considerations,” he said.
“We believe the integrity of the female category in athletics is paramount.”
The issue of transgender participation in sports has been a thorny one in recent years, notably when New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard qualified for the Tokyo Olympics.
Since Tokyo, the majority of sports have opted to allow transwomen to compete if they lower their testosterone to 5 nanomoles per liter for 12 months.
However, emerging science showing that transgender women retain an advantage in strength, endurance, power, and lung capacity even after suppressing testosterone had led World Athletics to propose a lower testosterone limit for at least 24 months in January.
President of the World Athletics Lord Coe said there was “little support” for such a policy, with athletes and federations making it clear they wanted to prioritize fairness for female sport over inclusion.
Athletics becomes the latest sport to ban transgender women from female sports, following World Rugby in 2020 and World Swimming and the Rugby Football League last year. Swimming’s decision came shortly after Lia Thomas, who had been a moderate college swimmer as a male competitor in the United States, won an NCAA national college female title in 2022.