Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth
Reason, science, and sanity finally win: the IOC bans ex-men from women's events in the 2028 Olympics.
From the New York Times news section:
Olympic Committee Bars Transgender Athletes From Women’s Events
By Tariq Panja
March 26, 2026
The International Olympic Committee has barred transgender athletes from competing in the women’s category of the Olympics and said that all participants in those events must undergo genetic testing.
The decision, the most consequential since Kirsty Coventry was elected last year as the first woman to serve as president of the I.O.C., followed a board meeting and months of speculation over the organization’s policy on one of the most contentious issues facing global sports. The rules will be applicable starting at the next Olympics, in Los Angeles in 2028.
Just in time before Olympic tickets go on sale next week. It’s reassuring that the Olympics isn’t going to ask me to spend a huge amount of money on 2028 ducat and then let another William “Lia” Thomas make a joke of a women’s event.
Under the new policy eligibility will be determined by a one-time gene test, according to the I.O.C. The test, which is already being used in track and field, requires screening via saliva, a cheek swab or a blood sample.
This SRY test would catch both the trans jokers like Thomas and the birth defect folks like 2016 women’s 800 m gold medalist Caster Semenya who get born looking ambiguous. (That’s where the “assigned sex at birth” silliness comes from. Bruce Jenner wasn’t wrongly assigned, but Caster Semenya was: he really was a boy on the inside, but the locals in his village couldn’t tell from the outside. Not surprisingly, I have more sympathy for the latter than the former.)
When Ms. Coventry, a former Olympic champion swimmer from Zimbabwe,
To be less ambiguous, IOC head Kirsty Coventry is a blonde Rhodesian superwoman, winner of two Olympic swimming golds.
campaigned to lead the organization, she frequently said how important it was to protect the women’s category amid broader — and often bitter — debates about the participation of transgender athletes in sporting competitions.
“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Ms. Coventry said in a statement announcing the news. “So, it is absolutely clear that 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.”
Well said.
She added the new policy “is based on science and has been led by medical experts.”
The ruling has no bearing on recreational sports,
Previously, the IOC had kicked the decision down to each sport’s organizing body, such as track & field or swimming. Most had already made the right choice. But the boxing organization, which has had a reputation at least since 1988 for being run by punch-drunk Third World crooks,
let in one or two birth-defect guys in 2024 to beat up women for gold medals.
While we are at it, can we get rid of women’s boxing in general?
If you like to see women fighting, or want to see a woman fight a man, then they should introduce a new Olympic sport called Heroine vs. Henchman, in which a tiny woman beats up a hulking man.
How? …
Paywall here.
