NAJIN (INSIDE THE GAMES)—-The international governing body for athletics today announced that it had approved the introduction of cheek swabs and dry blood tests to determine if an athlete is biologically female to “protect the female category in sport.”
The gender debate that tarnished the Paris 2024 Summer Games threw an already sensitive issue further into the limelight and accelerated debate over what to do regarding gender eligibility rules across all areas of sport. It resulted in the issue being central in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Presidential election, won by Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry last week, and candidates were frequently quizzed on their approach to the transgender debate.
World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe, who finished third in the race to be the new IOC president, was one of the most forthright about his approach, emphasising that transgender athletes could pose a threat to “elite-level” competition and appealing to biology and science as foundational pillars for future regulations.
Now, the athletics governing body led by the 68-year-old British Olympian has become the first global sporting institution to introduce DNA tests for elite female athletes. “We will doggedly protect the female category and do whatever is necessary to do it, and we’re not just talking about it,” Coe said in a press conference today following the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China.
“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,” Coe said. “We feel this is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.”
There is currently no fixed date for when the new measures will be introduced, but they are expected to be implemented in time for the 2025 World Athletics Championships taking place in Tokyo, Japan, from 13 to 21 September this year.
Coe emphasised that the new tests, which would involve either a one‑time cheek swab or dry blood test, are not invasive and will be done to “absolutely international medical standards.”
The decision was reportedly taken following new research that showed that males have a biological advantage for sports performance even before puberty. The body took the measure after a wide consultation on the proposal. “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,” said the World Athletics president. “We’ve been to the Court of Arbitration on our DSD (difference of sex development) regulations. They have been upheld, and they have again been upheld after appeal.” …PACNEWS