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A presentation at a World Athletics panel in Tokyo on Friday revealed that 50 to 60 athletes with male biological advantages have been finalists in the female category at global and continental championships since 2000.
The panel was led by the head of the World Athletics Health and Science Department, Dr. Stephane Bermon, who said sex tests were necessary because of an “over-representation” of DSD (differences of sex development) athletes among finalists, per multiple reports.
Controversy around the issue in World Athletics arose when South Africa’s Caster Semenya won Olympic gold in the 800m at the 2012 and 2016 Games. Then at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Namibia’s Christine Mboma claimed silver in the 200m.
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Gold medalist Caster Semenya of South Africa stands on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women’s 800 meters at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
World Athletics changed its policy in March 2023, excluding male-to-female transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty from women’s competitions, prioritizing “fairness and integrity.”
Last October, the United Nations said nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of the podium because they were beaten out by trans athletes.
The findings were compiled by Reem Alsalem, the UN’s Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, titled “Violence against women and girls in sports.”
The report said that more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information obtained up to March 30.
“The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males,” the report said.
“This is huge, especially coming from the UN…” OutKick contributor and “Gaines for Girls” host Riley Gaines told “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday. “One girl being exploited in locker rooms, one girl being injured in their sport is one too many.”
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The new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Kirsty Coventry, addressed the topic of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports at her first official news conference since taking over in June, and said that there is “overwhelming support” by IOC members to protect the female category.
“We understand that there’ll be differences depending on the sport … but it was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost to ensure fairness,” Coventry said.
“But we need to do that with a scientific approach and the inclusion of the international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area.”
The new president added that there is “unanimous” support for coming to an agreement about how to amend the policy, and suggested the IOC may take inspiration from the World Athletics policy, which restricts biological males from competing in women’s sports if those males have gone through male puberty.
“It was very clear from the membership the discussion around this has to be done with medical and scientific research at the core, so we are looking at the facts and the nuances and the inclusion of the international federations that have done so much of this work … having a seat at table and sharing with us because every sport is different,” she said.
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“But it was pretty much unanimously felt that the IOC should take a leading role in bringing everyone together to try and find a broad consensus.”
However, Coventry also said any changes likely wouldn’t result in retroactively changing the results of past competitions that featured athletes with gender-eligibility questions.
The 2024 Paris Games featured two boxers winning gold in women’s competition, despite previously failing gender-eligibility tests for international competitions.
“We’re not going to be doing anything retrospectively. We’re going to be looking forward. From the members [it] was ‘What are we learning from the past, and how are we going to leverage that and move that forward to the future?’” Coventry said.
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