Female Athletes Will be Gene Tested Ahead of Tokyo World Championships
USATF will administer cheek swabs at this week’s U.S. Track and Field Championships to comply with new requirements.
On July 30, World Athletics announced specifics on a new gene testing policy for athletes competing in the female category. To be eligible for the upcoming Tokyo World Athletics Championships, these athletes must take an SRY gene test by September 1.
The philosophy that we hold dear in World Athletics is the protection and the promotion of the integrity of women’s sport…
The test, which an athlete will only have to take once in their career, will be administered by either a cheek swab or blood test — “whichever is more convenient,” according to a World Athletics press release. SRY tests can determine the presence of a Y chromosome and the organisation calls them a “reliable proxy for determining biological sex.” The tests will be administered by each country’s member federation.
If an athlete’s SRY test is positive for the male Y chromosome, then they will not be eligible to compete at “world-ranking competitions” in the female category. They would instead be allowed to participate in “non-world ranking competitions” or in the male or open categories.
“The philosophy that we hold dear in World Athletics is the protection and the promotion of the integrity of women’s sport,” Coe said. “It is really important in a sport that is permanently trying to attract more women that they enter a sport believing there is no biological glass ceiling. The test to confirm biological sex is a very important step in ensuring this is the case.”
The new policy could affect athletes who have differences in sex development (DSD), a rare condition where a person has male and female characteristics. Prominent examples of athletes competing on the international stage with DSD include Caster Semenya, Christine Mboma, and Francine Niyonsaba.
In 2023, World Athletics banned transgender women who had gone through male puberty from competing in the female category at international events.
World Athletics, in a press release on Wednesday, noted that “no transgender athletes currently compete in elite international competition.”
The Tokyo World Championships are scheduled for September 13 to 21.
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