Women’s rights activists have urged the International Paralympic Committee to follow the IOC’s example and ‘protect female sport’ in the wake of the landmark decision to ban all transgender athletes from the Olympic Games.
Daily Mail Sport reported on Monday that the International Olympic Committee, under new president Kirsty Coventry, is set to trigger a dramatic policy shift that would impose a blanket ban across all sports for the Los Angeles Games.
The existing rules gave each sport the jurisdiction to decide if transgender women can compete if their testosterone levels fall below a designated threshold, but have now taken matters into their own hands.
The Women’s Rights Network last night hit out at sister organisation the International Paralympic Committee – which oversees the Paralympic Games – labelling the body ‘well behind the curve’ on the transgender debate.
‘In all the excitement about the IOC finally moving to protect female sport let’s not forget that the Paralympic Games are still well behind the curve,’ the group posted on X.
‘We well remember the the Paris Paralympics where 50-something Italian male Valentina (formerly Fabrizio) Petrillo raced young women in the T12 400 and 200 metre races for partially-sighted athletes.
Activists have called for the Paralympics to impose a ban on transgender athletes following the International Olympic Committee’s decision (pictured: transgender runner Valentina Petrillo)
‘While the President of the Paralympic Games, Andrew Parsons, is on record as saying he’s not in favour of a blanket ban on transgender athletes we think it’s time he made the rules fair for females.
‘No one is calling for a ban. We just want female sports to be for females only. Paralympic athletes deserve the same rights to fairness as their Olympic peers.’
Valentina Petrillo famously made headlines around the world during her appearance at the Paris Games.
Petrillo sparked fury from politicians in her native Italy as well as from author JK Rowling who called her an ‘out and proud cheat’ when her qualification for the Paralympics was revealed, having raced as a man until eight years ago.
She was allowed to compete at the Paralympics because her testosterone levels were below the legal limit required to compete thanks to hormone treatment and she was given the green light by the sport’s governing body.
Her passport – which she obtained in 2023 – lists her as a woman, and she said during the Paris Games that nothing would stop her achieving her dream.
She failed to qualify for the finals of either the 200m or 400m races.
‘I’m not bothered what JK Rowling or anyone else says, I’m just here for myself and my family. There’s a lot of transphobia out there and I’m here only to compete and ignoring that outside noise,’ the defiant sprinter said.
Elsewhere, the IOC move will prevent the kind of scenario that saw Laurel Hubbard contest the weightlifting at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Hubbard transitioned in 2012.
While Olympic sources have confirmed that such a measure is very much the ‘direction of travel’, it is highly unlikely to come into force before the Winter Olympics in Italy next February.
A ban on transgender women in Olympic sports is edging closer and is expected to be in place for the LA Games in 2028 (pictured – transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand)
IOC President Kirsty Coventry has expressed her desire to ‘protect the female category’
One report suggested that a rule change could be announced in February, but insiders estimated it might take between six months and a year for it to be approved and cleared.
The move would be seen as a box ticked by Coventry, who campaigned to protect the female category on her way to winning the presidential election earlier this year.
It would also avoid any awkward flashpoints with Donald Trump in the build-up to the LA Olympics – in February, the US President signed an executive order to prevent transgender women from competing in female sport.
Such has been the focus on this area that a presentation was delivered by IOC medical, health, and science director Dr Jane Thornton to members in Lausanne last week, which included a science-based review around trans and differences of sexual development (DSD) issues. The IOC denied that any decision has been made on either front and it is understood there has not yet been a presentation to the executive board, which next convenes in December.
Petrillo was criticised by Italian politicians and JK Rowling at the Paris Paralympics
An IOC statement to Daily Mail Sport read: ‘An update was given by the IOC’s director of health, medicine and science to the IOC Members last week during the IOC commission meetings. The working group is continuing its discussions on this topic and no decisions have been taken yet.’
Among the points stressed in that presentation was the distinction between transgender and DSD in athletes who have male chromosomes but were raised as female. On the latter, which led to immense controversy at the boxing at Paris 2024, the future landscape is less clear.
It is understood that a rule change around DSD athletes is considered likely in the long run, but faces internal opposition, according to Daily Mail Sport sources.
That separate branch of the debate led to fury in Paris last year when Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan won boxing gold medals after being disqualified from the World Championships in 2023 for reportedly failing gender eligibility tests.
The IOC executive committee, which included Coventry at the time, faced huge criticism for permitting them to fight.
