World Athletics on Tuesday approved cheek-swab tests to verify if an athlete is female, as Sebastian Coe, the organization’s president, vowed to protect women’s sports.
Coe said pre-clearance testing will be for athletes who want to compete in the female category. He called the process “very straightforward” and an issue that was “important” to him. He added that the tests are not invasive and was ready for any criticism that could come his way.
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Sebastian Coe speaks during a press conference following a presentation before their fellow IOC members in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Jan 30, 2025. (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool Photo via AP)
“Neither of these are invasive. They are necessary, and they will be done to absolutely international medical standards,” he said during a media availability. “I wouldn’t have set off down this path in 2016, 2017 to protect the female category in sport if I’d been sort of anything other than prepared to take the challenge head on.
“We’ve been to the Court of Arbitration for Sport on our [difference of sexual development] DSD regulations. They’ve been upheld, and again they’ve been upheld after appeal. We will doggedly protect the female category and we’ll do whatever is necessary to do it. And we’re not just talking about it.”
Coe stressed the importance of keeping women’s sports female.
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The issue of trans athletes in women’s sports hit a fever pitch last year. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
“It’s important to do it because it maintains everything that we’ve been talking about and, particularly recently, about not just talking about the integrity of female, women’s sport but actually guaranteeing it and this we feel is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining absolute focus on the integrity of competition,” he said.
Officials said in February that the test is looking for the SRY gene, according to Sky News. The specific gene “provides instructions for making a protein called the sex-determining region Y protein. This protein is involved in male-typical sex development, which usually follows a certain pattern based on an individual’s chromosomes,” according to Medline Plus.
The test is taken via cheek swab with possibly a dry blood sample if necessary.
Coe, who was in the running to become the International Olympic Committee chief, said in November the Olympics needed a clear policy to protect female sports.
Sebastian Coe arrives at the mixed zone during a break of the 144th session, which will elect the new IOC president, in Costa Navarino, western Greece, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
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World Athletics, the governing body for track and field sports around the globe, tightened its regulations on trans athletes to exclude transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in the female category.
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