South African sprinter Caster Semenya, a two-time Olympic 800m champion, has criticised the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) reinstatement of gender verification tests for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, calling it “a disrespect for women”.
The hyperandrogenic athlete expressed her disappointment that the policy was introduced under new IOC President Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe.
Speaking on Sunday in Cape Town, Semenya said, “For me personally, for her being a woman coming from Africa, knowing how African women or women in the Global South are affected by that, of course it causes harm.”
The IOC recently announced that only “biological females” will be eligible to compete in women’s events, effectively preventing transgender women from participating.
History of gender verification in Olympics
Chromosomal sex testing was previously used by the IOC from 1968 until the 1996 Atlanta Olympics before being abandoned in 1999 due to scientific criticism and pressure from athletes’ representatives.
Semenya said, “It came as a failure, and that’s why it was dropped. It’s like now we need to prove that we are worthy as women to take part in sports. That’s a disrespect for women.”
Semenya’s legal battle
Semenya has been a symbol of the struggle of hyperandrogenic athletes to compete in women’s events, both on the track and in court. Since her first world title in the 800m in 2009, she has challenged track and field’s sex eligibility rules.
In 2025, the European Court of Human Rights ruled partially in her favour, finding that some of her rights to a fair hearing had been violated before Switzerland’s Supreme Court. However, the ruling did not overturn the World Athletics regulations that effectively ended her 800m career.
New IOC policy for 2028
The IOC will now implement a uniform policy across all Olympic sports, abandoning rules introduced in 2021 that allowed individual federations to set their own eligibility criteria.
“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one-time SRY gene screening,” the IOC stated. The test will be carried out once in an athlete’s lifetime using saliva, cheek swab, or blood sample.
Kirsty Coventry defended the policy, saying, “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat, so it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category. In addition, in some sports it would simply not be safe.”
Political context
The new policy also removes potential conflict with US President Donald Trump, who in January 2025 issued an executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. Trump praised the IOC’s decision on his Truth Social platform.
Several sports had previously allowed transgender women to compete if they reduced testosterone levels, while others imposed bans. The policy change follows disputes at the 2024 Paris Olympics, notably in women’s boxing, when Algerian Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were initially excluded by the International Boxing Association before being allowed to compete and ultimately winning gold.
