President Trump supports genetic testing to prevent transgender athletes from competing in 2028 Olympics
President Donald Trump has said that 2028 Olympic athletes will undergo genetic testing before the Games to prevent transgender athletes from participating.
Transgender women will be banned from competing in women’s Olympic events starting at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry announced the change on Thursday, March 26, reversing a 2004 decision to allow transgender female athletes to participate. So far, only one openly transgender woman has competed at the 2021 Olympics, a weightlifter from New Zealand who failed to make it past the opening round at the Tokyo Games.
Women wishing to compete in the Olympics must undergo a one-time test to screen for the presence of the SRY gene.
The geneticist who discovered the SRY gene said it should not be used as a definitive marker of sex. Genetic testing is also illegal in some countries, such as France.
“If it’s a country where it’s illegal, the players could travel to other competitions and get tested there,” Coventry said. “This is also why we are saying that this policy takes effect now, but it will not be implemented until LA 28. So we have time to step through this process with everyone.”
Coventry also dismissed concerns about requiring testing for young athletes. The youngest athlete at the Paris Olympics was 11 years old, but the Youth Olympics are open to athletes between the ages of 15 and 18.
“We’ll be able to help the rest of the movement do this in a safe way, in an ethical way, and in a humane way. I think that was really the basis for this athlete-centric policy going forward,” Coventry said.
Transgender participation has become a focus of right-wing and transphobic groups, who argue that it threatens women’s sports and female athletes, even though the number of transgender athletes is negligible. The IOC took up the issue in September 2024 after several sports organizations, including World Athletics and World Aquatics, took steps to restrict or ban transgender athletes from participating.
The following year, Coventry announced the creation of a working group to consider “scientific, medical and legal developments beyond 2021”.
“The scientific evidence is very clear,” she said in a video released by the IOC. “Male chromosomes provide a performance advantage in sports that rely on strength, power, and endurance.”
However, this remains controversial, with a 2024 study partially funded by the IOC directly contradicting the idea and warning against a ban. Jane Thornton, the IOC’s medical and scientific director, dismissed the study, saying it lacked “Olympic data.”
But the IOC has refused to publish any science it says shows the need to ban transgender athletes. He also declined to identify the members of the working group that created the system, but several researchers whose findings cast doubt on transgender women’s competitive advantage told USA TODAY Sports in September that they were not included.
But the ban will almost certainly be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which could force the IOC to reveal what science it relies on.
