{"id":30123,"date":"2026-03-27T11:15:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=30123"},"modified":"2026-03-27T11:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T09:15:48","slug":"new-ioc-policy-aims-to-protect-female-category-across-olympic-sport","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/new-ioc-policy-aims-to-protect-female-category-across-olympic-sport\/","title":{"rendered":"New IOC policy aims to protect female category across Olympic sport"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced a new Policy on the Protection of the Female Category in Olympic Sport and Guiding Considerations for International Federations and Sports Governing Bodies.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Reactions to the IOC&#8217;s new policy on gender testing were sharply divided, with supporters hailing the long\u2011overdue move to protect women&#8217;s sport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Meanwhile critics maintain there&#8217;s no evidence that women athletes who had undergone hormone therapy for one to three years, have any sustained physical advantage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The IOC announced that from now on, athletes who want to take part in female category events at Olympic Games will be subjected to one-time gene-screening tests to determine their eligibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">The move represents a significant reversal in sports policy at an organization that has for years grappled with evolving approaches to the so-called verification of womanhood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">From the early 2000s up through the Tokyo Games, the IOC has maintained evolving guidelines on the participation of transgender athletes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">In 2021, the body released a set of inclusive guidelines on trans athlete participation, but left decision making up to individual sport governing bodies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Many of them banned transgender women outright.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">Only a handful of openly transgender athletes have taken part in the Games since.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"x_MsoNormal\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21759,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-30123","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"International Olympic Committee","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30126,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30123\/revisions\/30126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}