World Athletics has confirmed all female athletes will undergo swab tests to determine if an athlete is biologically female.
The global body’s president Sebastian Coe said the decision taken by the World Athletics Council was further evidence his organisation would ‘doggedly’ protect the female category.
No timeline for the introduction of pre-clearance testing has been officially set out, but the PA news agency understands World Athletics’ intention is to have the testing in place for athletes wanting to compete in the female category at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
Coe said on Tuesday: ‘It’s important to do it because it maintains everything that we’ve been talking about, and particularly recently, about not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it.
‘We feel this is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.’
Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies MBE, who has spoken out vehemently on the issue of trans athletes competing in women’s events, was delighted by the news on Tuesday and called for medals to be re-issued for ‘unfairly robbed’ women.
She posted on social media platform X: ‘No more cheating in track and fields by males in a category for females. I’d very much like to see medals re issued for events ruined and women unfairly robbed!’
World Athletics conducted consultation on the proposal earlier this year, and Coe said: ‘Overwhelmingly, the view has come back that this is absolutely the way to go, within the caveats raised (on testing not being too intrusive).’
Asked whether he felt the policy would stand up to legal challenge and scrutiny, Coe said: ‘Yes I am, but you accept the fact that that is the world we live in.
‘I would never have set off down this path to protect the female category in sport if I’d been anything other than prepared to take the challenge head on. We’ve been to the Court of Arbitration on our DSD (difference of sexual development) regulations.
‘They have been upheld, and they have again been upheld after appeal. So we will doggedly protect the female category, and we’ll do whatever is necessary to do it.’
