NCAA faces calls to follow World Athletics, enact cheek-swab tests to compete in women's sports

The NCAA on Tuesday faced calls to follow in the footsteps of World Athletics and enact gender tests for athletes who want to compete in women’s sports.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said cheek-swab tests will be used for athletes who want to compete in the female category. He called the process "very straightforward" and keeping women's sports fair 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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Advocates for fairness in women’s sports called on the NCAA to go further and alter their rules in accordance with World Athletics.

Coe vowed to protect women’s sports.

"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."

President Donald Trump signed the "No Men in Women’s Sports" executive order in February to keep biological males from playing against girls’ and women’s sports.

The NCAA followed up by altering its gender-participation rules. The organization said a "student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete on a women’s team." The previous policy, which had been in place in 2010, allowed biological males to compete in the women's category after undergoing at least one year of testosterone suppression treatment.

However, women’s sports advocates have pointed out that the NCAA’s rules do not go far enough.

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The major criticism was that the policy fails to go far enough or establish clear barriers to protect women's athletes in the college ranks and that the policy allegedly allows trans athletes to bypass the restriction by changing the gender on their birth certificate.

In the U.S., 44 states allow birth certificates to be altered to change a person's birth sex. The only states that do not allow this are Florida, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Montana. Meanwhile, there are 14 states that allow sex on a birth certificate to be changed without any medical documentation required, including California, New York, Massachusetts and Michigan.

Riley Gaines, the host of OutKick’s "Gaines for Girls" podcast and former All-American swimmer at Kentucky, told Fox News Digital in an interview last month that the new NCAA policy is "as clear as mud."

An NCAA spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the governing body will not allow trans athletes to compete in the women's category based on changed birth certificates.

"The policy is clear that there are no waivers available, and athletes assigned male at birth may not compete on a women’s team with amended birth certificates or other forms of ID," the spokesperson said. 

Regarding trans athletes practicing on a women's team, the NCAA considers male practice players a "staple" of women's sports. 

"Male practice players have been a staple in college sports for decades, particularly in women’s basketball, and the association will continue to account for that in the policy," the spokesperson said.

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