France calls Olympic gender test ‘step backwards’

France on Friday called the International Olympic Committee’s new policy on gender testing to determine eligibility to compete in women’s events a “step backwards”, but other countries welcomed the move.

France’s Sports Minister Marina Ferrari said the test, which is banned under French law, “raises major concerns, as it specifically targets women by introducing a distinction that undermines the principle of equality”.

“France regrets this step backwards,” Ferrari added, recalling that the IOC scrapped a similar test in 1999 “due to strong reservations from the scientific community regarding their usefulness”.

The IOC announced on Thursday only “biological females” will be allowed to take part in women’s events, preventing transgender women from competing.

It is re-introducing gender testing from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics onwards in a move which will also rule out many athletes with differences in sexual development (DSD), previously known as intersex athletes.

The French minister said the new IOC policy “defines the female sex without taking into consideration the biological specificities of intersex people whose sexual characteristics present natural variations, which leads to a reductive and potentially stigmatising approach”.

The IOC said there may be “rare exceptions” for DSD athletes who do not benefit from the performance-enhancing effects of testosterone.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry said on Thursday that athletes from countries where the gender test was banned would have to be tested in other countries.

“If it is illegal in a country, athletes will have the possibility when they travel to other competitions to be tested there,” Coventry said.

“This is also why we’re saying the policy comes into effect now, but will be implemented in LA 28. So we have time to walk through this process with everyone.”

The sport of athletics introduced the gender test last year.

The president of France’s athletics federation, Jean Gracia, told AFP: “The solution we have found, is that we benefit from all the occasions when athletes are outside France in order to do what is required.”

New Zealand’s Olympic Committee said the IOC ruling would bring greater “clarity” to future Games.

New Zealand fielded transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard in the women’s competition at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in a controversial first.

NZOC chief executive Nicki Nicol said the new policy would bring “greater clarity, consistency and fairness to eligibility for the female category at the Olympic level”.

Australian Olympic Committee president Ian Chesterman said the IOC had comprehensively investigated what he called a “complex issue” before making its decision.

“Harry Potter” creator JK Rowling, who has been one of the fiercest supporters of the argument that only those born female at birth are women, also welcomed the IOC’s new policy.

Rowling posted her message on X with a picture of Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer who sparked a furore over her gender eligibility at the Paris Olympics.

The author said the “ruling by the IOC means a welcome return to fair sport for women and girls, but I’ll never forget the scandal of Paris 2024, when people who consider themselves supremely virtuous and progressive publicly cheered on men punching women.”

The IOC policy is in line with an executive order issued by US President Donald Trump last year which banned transgender athletes from women’s sport.

Trump said on his Truth Social network the IOC’s move was “only happening because of my powerful Executive Order, standing up for Women and Girls!”

Eligibility for the female category will be decided by genetic testing, which will test athletes to see if they have the SRY gene which determines whether a person is biologically male.

The test wil be carried out by a swab of the cheek or blood samples and will only take place once in an athlete’s career.

Announcing the test on Thursday, IOC chief Coventry said: “I do feel that this policy is a policy that is supporting equality and fairness and the protection of the safety on the field of play.” (Jamaica Observer)

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