Female athletes whose tests show the presence of male chromosomes will not be allowed to compete at world ranking competitions. Once passed, women won’t need to do the test again.

Athletics has spent years debating eligibility criteria to compete in women’s events, amid questions over biological advantages for transgender athletes and those with differences of sex development (DSD) – conditions where there is a discrepancy between a person’s external and internal genitals, sometimes known as intersex.

World Athletics bans transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women’s events, while it requires female DSD athletes whose bodies produce high testosterone levels to lower them to be eligible.

Earlier this year, a working group found that those rules were not tight enough, with a pre-clearance test for the SRY gene being one of several recommendations the group made for revised rules.

The test was also approved by World Boxing in May when they introduced mandatory sex testing for all boxers.

Earlier this month, the European Court upheld a 2023 ruling that two-time 800 metres Olympic champion Caster Semenya’s – who has naturally high levels of testosterone – appeal to a Swiss Federal Tribunal against regulations that barred her from competing had not been properly heard.

Semenya was appealing against World Athletics regulations that female athletes with DSDs medically reduce their testosterone levels.

Semenya won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympics in Rio, but has since been effectively banned from high-level competitions.

With Reuters