By Edith Loyola 
World Athletics will require all athletes wishing to compete in the female category to undergo mandatory genetic testing under a new regulation. The measure, adopted on Tuesday by the organization’s Council during a meeting held in China, aims to “ensure” fairness in sport based on recent scientific evidence concerning performance differences that emerge before puberty.
According to the announcement, this new requirement follows recommendations from the working group on athletes with “gender diversity,” which called for a review of eligibility rules in light of recent “scientific advances.”
In this regard, World Athletics President, Briton Sebastian Coe, emphasized the strong stance the organization has taken in defense of fair competition in women’s athletics.
“We will fiercely protect the female category and do whatever it takes to uphold it,” Coe stated during a press briefing following the Council session.
It is worth recalling that since March 2023, World Athletics had already prohibited transgender athletes who had undergone “male puberty” from participating in women’s events. However, the criterion used up to that point was challenged in a recent report published by the specialized group in February.
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The report explicitly stated:
“Focusing exclusively on male puberty is a mistake.”
Moreover, the report presented relevant scientific data regarding performance differences between male and female athletes—differences that appear even before the onset of puberty.
“New evidence clarifies that an athletically significant performance gap already exists prior to the onset of puberty. In athletics specifically, the performance difference in childhood or pre-puberty is between 3% and 5% in running events, and even greater in throwing and jumping events,” the report states.
For these reasons, the group recommended, as an essential measure, the introduction of a mandatory pre-authorization requirement for female competitors, which specifically includes genetic testing to detect the SRY gene.
According to Coe, the test will be simple and non-invasive; it will be carried out only once, either through a buccal swab or a dried blood spot analysis.
Finally, the federation indicated that in the coming weeks it will begin the formal drafting of this regulation, and will define the service provider, the specific procedure, and the implementation timeline for the genetic test.