Rhetoric Over Reality – The Olympics Ruling on Transgender Athletes Has Solved Little

By Jamie Keegan

In light of the International Olympics Convention (IOC) president Kirsti Coventry announcing the blanket ban on transgender athletes competing in sports that align with their gender identity, I am struck by how this specific culture-war battleground has wormed its way to official Olympic policy. Coventry claims that it is “absolutely clear” that transgender women competing in the same category as cisgender women would be neither fair nor safe [1] and has required that athletes would have to take SRY gene tests to distinguish Y chromosomes. The decision is sharp, shocking and as always controversial. But it’s also quite simplistic and risks prioritising conventional wisdom and public discourse over actual science.

While Coventry and co. seem convinced that the science has proven enough to justify the blanket bans, the data paints a far less conclusive picture. While physiological differences between cisgender men and women is not up for debate, research into transgender athletes’ capabilities is curtailed by both an extraordinary small sample size (transgender people make up 0.5% of the general population [2]) and the differences caused by gender hormonal therapy. A study from 2023 concluded that transgender athletes after completing gender-affirming hormone therapy have significant change in overall body composition and muscular strength, while much less in average height and limb length. [3] A more recent study from this February had similar findings, arguing that transgender athletes experienced no significant differences in cardiorespiratory fitness and body strength and thus did not justify a ban on competition on the grounds of fairness. [4] While both of these studies take pains to stress that they are obviously limited due to the small sample size of elite transgender athletes, that in and of itself should be telling on the murkiness of the IOC’s logic.

Which brings us to the cultural aspect. It should not be controversial that trans people, especially trans women, have been made a scapegoat in the ever-engulfing culture war across Europe and the Americas. And in recent years, there is a sense of a cultural shift against them; the UK Supreme Court’s ruling on the legal definition of a woman being based on biological sex only happened a year ago. Across the Atlantic, the Trump administration administered the obviously provocatively-named “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order (because they are apparently so focused on protecting women’s rights all of a sudden) that made especial reference to “male participation in women’s sports” which has irresponsibly perpetuated the transphobic myth of predatory and sexist men seeking to overpower or demean women in sporting. [5]

With all these rulings, the question remains: what are transgender athletes supposed to do? The conversations regarding “biological advantages” tend to start and end on whether they do or they don’t, often times ignoring the complexities of the research. Rulings like the IOC’s result in celebrations and back-patting as if the matter is solved, yet there lacks a conversation on whether these “advantages” are meaningful in relation to general variation in competitive sporting events. Overall there is a disturbing expectation that transgender athletes have to “shape up or ship out”: either participate in accordance with the sex assigned at birth (no doubt highly distressing and traumatising) or not participate at all (obviously discriminatory). When it comes to integration, there are always going to be questions regarding fairness and equality. Such issues require careful and conscientious discussion; blanket bans are the wrong move. They solve nothing and only fan the flames of public discourse and prejudice. And in a world that seems to be growing more hostile to transgender people by the day, I remain sceptical on the IOC’s claims of “absolute clarity” regarding the issue.

[1] “International Olympic Committee announce new policy on the protection of the female (women’s) category in Olympic sport.” International Olympic Committee. https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/international-olympic-committee-announces-new-policy-on-the-protection-of-the-female-women-s-category-in-olympic-sport

[2] D.J. Oberlin, “Sex differences and athletic performance. Where do trans individuals fit into sports and athletics based on current research?” Front Sports Act Living. (Oct. 27, 2023). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10641525/

[3] Ibid.

[4] Harriet Williamson, “Trans women in sport have no advantage over cis women, study finds.” Novara. https://novaramedia.com/2026/02/05/trans-women-in-sport-have-no-advantage-over-cos-women-study-finds/

[5] Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/