World Athletics Mandates Sex Testing On Female Athletes

World Athletics is now making “sex testing” mandatory for athletes who are competing in the female category.

Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, has made it his mission to stop trans people from being able to compete in “elite” sports. Coe has been running World Athletics since 2015 and has previously defended trans athletes competing in sports saying that they should not be denied the benefits of competing. However, in 2023, Coe made a statement, saying, “Transgender athletes should not be competing in the female category” and stated that trans women who transitioned after puberty would not be allowed to participate in the female category. Now it seems very clear which statement he truly meant.

Under the guise of focusing on the “integrity of competition,” Coe has mandated that athletes will undergo “non-invasive” tests like cheek swabs or dry blood tests to measure their testosterone levels. World Athletics claims that they are trying to “protect women’s sports” and stop athletes from benefiting from “testosterone advantages.” They take this stance even thought the International Olympics Committee (IOC) backed a study published in 2024 that states trans women are not inherently more advantaged when competing in sports and that the opposite could even be true.

Incoming IOC president Kirsty Coventry seems to be on the same page as Coe, having previously stated that she wants to, “protect the female category and athletes” from trans athletes competing and that she has not ruled out trans-exclusionary policies. She plans to “sit down and try and come up with a collective way forward for all of us to move.”

It is very interesting that amidst all of these claims about wanting to “protect the integrity” of sports, it is only the female sports category that these regulations and mandates are being placed on. Orlando Pride forward and BBC’s Footballer of the Year Barbra Banda has already been on the receiving end of several instances of transphobic discrimination, and she’s not even trans. Banda was also restricted from playing a match in 2022 because her testosterone levels were “too high” even though she is a cis woman. These transphobic implementations aimed specifically at women’s sports is not just affecting the trans athletes, but any athletes who do not fit the white supremacist definition of what a woman should be. Black and Brown women will suffer and become targets even more than they are now.

This mandated sex testing never was about “protecting” anyone or anything except white supremacy. White supremacy has a strict view on what gender performance should look like and Black and Brown people do not fit.

World Athletics claims to “not judge or question gender identity,” and “respects and preserves the dignity and privacy of individuals,” but is going to force every athlete that wants to compete in the female category to take a dehumanizing test and judge them based on their testosterone levels.