Olympics chief hopeful vows to explore trans athletes ban amid global outrage
Former Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe published his manifesto for his vision as International Olympics Committee (IOC) president, as he campaigns for the position going into 2025.
Coe's manifesto stresses the importance of protecting female athletes, in a year that has been plagued by global outrage over trans athletes in women's sports.
Unlike current IOC president Thomas Bach, Coe staunchly opposes trans inclusion in the women's category, and said he would explore a complete ban on trans athletes in an interview with Sky News on Thursday.
Coe is the current head of World Athletics – the governing body for international track & field competition. In 2023, the governing body tightened its regulations on trans athletes to exclude transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in the female category. That regulation also lowered the maximum testosterone level for eligible female competitors.
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Coe told Sky News that if he is elected IOC president, the Olympics would get a new policy that will "probably" reflect the current World Athletics restrictions.
"We will have a very clear policy that will be un-ambiguous," Coe said. "We've been very clear in World Athletics that transgender athletes will not be competing in the female category at the elite level."
Coe declined to state whether he would advocate for mandatory sex-eligibility tests for Olympians.
While criticizing the IOC's current policies on the issue, Coe referenced an incident at the recent Paris Olympics. The recent summer games were overshadowed by controversy when Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan won gold medals in women's boxing.
Both athletes had previously been disqualified from international competitions for failing gender-eligibility tests. However, the IOC and current President Thomas Bach supported the inclusion of both athletes, insisting they were qualified to compete as women under the current rules.
"If you have a vacuum around this policy position, then you end up with some of the things that we witnessed in Paris," Coe said.
Coe previously said the situation involving Khelif and Lin made him feel "uncomfortable," in a November interview with the BBC. Neither athlete has been confirmed to be transgender.
The United Nations released study findings saying that nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of the podium because they have been beaten out by transgender athletes.
The study, titled "Violence against women and girls in sports," said that more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information obtained up to March 30.
"The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males," the report said.
In the U.S., trans inclusion in women's sports became a highly opposed issue in 2024, especially by conservatives, but some liberals spoke out against it as well.
Polls show that the majority of Americans are not in favor of trans inclusion in women's sports, which was a key campaign issue for Trump and other Republicans in the recent cycle.
Nearly 70% of Americans do not believe that biological men should be allowed to compete in women's sports, according to a Gallup poll taken last year.
In June, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to weigh in on whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be permitted to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity instead of their biological sex. Sixty-five percent answered that it should be either never or rarely allowed. When those polled were asked specifically about adult transgender female athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% opposed it.
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