Vote for Olympic head could be key for trans, intersex athletes

• Leading IOC candidates favour exclusion
• Rights groups want fairness framework to be binding
• Trans and intersex athletes say bans impact youth

LONDON - Urs Vanessa Sager was swimming for the junior national Swiss team in 1971 when the intersex teen was told they no longer had a place in the binary categories of the sport.

"Because I grew breasts, I couldn't start with the men anymore. And because of what I have between my legs, I couldn't start with the women," Sager, co-chair of the Swiss Association for Intersex People, said in a video call with Context.

The experience was so distressing it led Sager to attempt suicide.

"I had a good family, I had good friends, even in the club where I was swimming. But at that moment, it really was hell," Sager said.

The participation of intersex and transgender athletes in sport has become an increasingly contested topic, with particular focus on those competing in elite women's categories.

The International Olympic Committee has allowed individual sporting federations to decide their own participation rules since 2021.

Some governing bodies - including athletics, cycling, swimming and rugby - have introduced restrictions on competition in female categories.

Now as seven candidates compete to become the next president of the IOC in an election running from March 18-21, experts and activists say the issue could be at a critical turning point.

At least four candidates want to strengthen restrictions on who can participate in women's categories, while three of them - including front runners Kirsty Coventry and Sebastian Coe - have discussed a total ban on trans athletes.

Fairness framework

The IOC's 2021 framework on fairness and inclusion says any eligibility criteria must ensure nobody enjoys a disproportionate advantage, but also notes that athletes should not be excluded due to a "perceived" advantage based on sex variations, trans status or physical appearance.

The framework is not legally binding and only applies during the Olympic Games, something rights groups wish to change.

The Sport and Rights Alliance, a global coalition of nine groups, wrote to the candidates in December to ask how they would ensure sports federations stick to the framework's principles.

"Multiple candidates mentioned women's safeguarding (in their manifestos) in a way that is against the IOC framework on fairness and inclusion," said Andrea Florence, the alliance's director.

Last year, the framework was used by current president Thomas Bach to protect boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting after they were accused of failing unspecified gender eligibility tests ahead of the Paris Games. 

The incident showed the IOC can "flex its power when it wants to," said Anna Posbergh, assistant professor and gender and sport researcher at Florida State University.

That could change if a new president scraps the framework.

"They could also take that kind of punitive approach with organisations that opt for inclusion, saying, 'You're not adhering to the protection of women, so we won't allow you to compete in the Olympic Games,'" Posbergh said.

Trickles down

The impact of trans and intersex exclusion from sport has already extended beyond the Olympics.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to "keep men out of women's sports" on Feb. 5, including in schools and colleges.

Many sporting bodies stipulate that trans female competitors can only participate in women's categories if they haven't undergone male puberty, which excludes most trans people from a young age, rights groups say.

Charlie Martin, a racing driver from Britain, said the lack of trans representation had made her younger self doubt whether she would ever find a place in sport.

"If everything you see and hear tells you it's impossible, chances are you will never try in the first place," Martin said.

Trans athletes do not necessarily have a physical advantage over female competitors, research shows.

A 2024 study into the strength, power and aerobic capacity of trans athletes found that trans women performed worse than other females in lower-body strength, jump height and lung functions tests, and better only in grip strength.

Scientists have suggested eligibility for women's categories could be decided based on the averages for female athletes.

In the Australian Football League, the elite trans eligibility policy assesses metrics such as height, weight and sprint time to determine if athletes are within the range of a woman assigned female at birth.

In February, World Athletics started a consultation for revising its eligibility criteria for the female category, which activists fear could lead to the complete exclusion of trans and intersex women. 

But the outcome could depend on the case of Caster Semenya, a two-time Gold medallist with differences in sexual development, who is challenging the federation's rules that she must medically reduce her testosterone levels to compete. 

"If they rule in favour of Semenya, it's back to square one for the sporting bodies. They will have to change," Sager said.

(Reporting by Lucy Middleton; editing by Ayla Jean Yackley)