IOC restores the women's category: a milestone for women's sport
The International Olympic Committee has adopted a new guideline that restores the women's category to biological women. An SRY gene test will determine access. EGGoe (Austria) interprets the breakthrough.
What is changing
From the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, the IOC will apply a universal standard: participation in the women's category is reserved for athletes without a Y chromosome. The presence of the SRY gene — the switch that, in embryonic development, leads to male gonad formation — is checked via a cheek-swab test. This is a break with the 2021 framework, in which the IOC still left the decision to individual sports federations.
Why this was necessary
- Athletes who went through male puberty retain lifelong advantages in muscle strength, lung capacity, heart volume and bone structure — testosterone suppression does not remove this.
- In contact sports a safety risk arises — not hypothetical, but documented in volleyball, MMA and rugby.
- The women's category exists precisely to make fair competition between women possible — otherwise the sport would not have needed a separate category.
"It is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological men to compete in the women's category." — Kirsty Coventry, IOC president
The SRY test as objective measure
The SRY test aligns with biology itself. No threshold value for testosterone that can fluctuate for years, no subjective identity declaration, but one genetic marker that is the same in every cell of the body. For women with a DSD in which the SRY gene is present, this means they can no longer start in the women's category — a painful but consistent choice.
"Fairness in competition and physical safety (especially in contact sports) now have top priority." — IOC
The end of an ideological interim phase
Between 2003 and 2025, the IOC gradually moved towards unconditional inclusion — first testosterone limits, then delegation to federations, and in 2021 even a statement that there was no scientific evidence for a trans advantage. That position has proved untenable. Sport scientists — including Emma Hilton, Tommy Lundberg and Ross Tucker — have explained this repeatedly. Women's sport itself has felt the difference.
What this means for the Netherlands
NOC*NSF will have to adopt the IOC guideline for Olympic selection. Federations that nationally still apply "selfID" access will come under pressure: their athletes will no longer be able to force an Olympic start. The Netherlands will have to choose between the IOC line and the activist line. Fairness for women, or an ideological principle.
Conclusion
The women's category does not exist for fun. It exists because the difference between male and female physical performance is so great that without a separate category no woman would ever have taken a world title. The IOC is returning to that reality. It was high time.