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The International Olympic Committee's new policy mandates genetic testing for all female athletes, raising concerns about privacy and fairness. This controversial measure is set to impact the LA28 Games and affects all women, not just transgender athletes.
Swabs and blood tests to check for the SRY gene are no way to determine whether an athlete is female. (Emanuele Cremaschi / Getty Images)
The International Olympic Committee claims that requiring sex testing for every female athlete will âprotect women,â but instead it will force all women to prove their bodies in ways that are invasive, unfair and unnecessary. And the first affected Games will be LA28.
Under the IOCâs new policy, all girls and women with Olympic dreams will be subjected to mandatory genetic testing. That means giving up private medical information. If they refuse, they donât get to compete. This isnât a move toward equal access for women and girls, but a move away.
Many headlines focused on one point: banning transgender women. But that misses the bigger story: This policy puts every womanâs body under a microscope and creates a system in which officials decide who is âwoman enoughâ to compete.
Historically, this has never gone well.
Sex testing and the policing of womenâs bodies in sport is not new; it is a failed idea resurrected. Before genetic testing, women athletes were forced to undergo humiliating exams to prove they were women. Officials judged bodies based on narrow ideas of what a woman should look like, often targeting Black and brown women who were more likely to be seen as âdifferent.â People the officials deemed âwoman enoughâ to participate often did not include intersex women, who may have a different build, facial or body hair, or other traits outside of the Eurocentric feminine ideal.
Later, sports organizations tried genetic testing. That didnât work either. Scientists found that there is no single gene or test that can define sex in a clear, fair way. In fact, the scientist who discovered the SRY gene itself, which was briefly used for Olympic sex testing in the 1990s and is the basis of the new policy, insisted it should not be used for such a purpose. These tests were dropped decades ago because they were unreliable and harmful.
Now theyâre coming back, and the harm could be even greater.
About 1 in 50 people are born with natural variations in their sex traits â also known as intersex (referred to in the IOC policy as having a âdifference of sex developmentâ). These variations don't confer athletic advantages. But many young women will be disqualified because they have such variations â and many of them donât even know it.
More than 80% of Americans have never undergone medical genetic testing, and global rates are even higher. Under IOCâs policy, some young women and girls will find out theyâre intersex for the first time through mandatory testing â without warning, support or privacy.
Imagine training your whole life for a sport, only to be told you donât belong because of something you didnât even know about. Thatâs the reality this policy creates.
Athletes will be publicly exposed and harassed. Weâve seen this before, too.
And for what?
Since the mid-2000s, when transgender athletes began being allowed into Olympic competition, only one openly transgender woman has competed in the womenâs category. Trans participation is extremely rare and yet is being used to justify sweeping bans.
Meanwhile, the policyâs costs on all women and girls are very real. Genetic testing is expensive. In some cases, athletes are already being told they must pay for it themselves. And in some countries, genetic testing is banned, forcing athletes to travel elsewhere to access it. This adds another barrier in an already difficult system.
Womenâs sports donât need more barriers. They need more support.
They need better funding. Better facilities. More media coverage. Fewer opportunities for abuse. More opportunities for girls to play and grow.
This policy does none of that.
Instead, it will drain funding, divert attention from actual sport and drive mistreatment of athletes. It also sends a message: Before you can compete, you must prove your body is acceptable.
It also raises serious ethical questions: Who will store this sensitive medical data? Who gets access to it? What happens if itâs leaked or misused?
Sports are supposed to be about fairness. But fairness doesnât mean exclusion. It means creating systems in which athletes can compete with dignity.
At its best, sport celebrates the human body in all its forms. Strength looks different. Speed looks different. Bodies are different. Thatâs part of the beauty of sports. Putting limitations on who is âwoman enoughâ to compete hurts that.
Hosting a successful Los Angeles 2028 Olympics means respecting the dignity and humanity of women who compete. Authentic support means increasing investment, access and respect â not testing, scrutiny or fear.
Because every athlete deserves the chance to compete without having to prove they belong.
Chris Mosier, an advocate for transgender inclusion in sport, is a co-author of âFair Game." Erika Lorshbough is the executive director of InterACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, an organization advancing the rights of people with intersex variations, and a graduate of UCLA Life Sciences and the Luskin School of Public Affairs.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
The International Olympic Committee has introduced a policy requiring mandatory genetic testing for all female athletes to determine eligibility.
The policy subjects all women athletes to invasive testing, forcing them to disclose private medical information to compete.
The genetic testing policy threatens to undermine women's rights in sports by creating a system that questions their gender identity and eligibility.
The new policy is set to impact the upcoming LA28 Olympic Games.

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