In this day and age, no one is safe from simply competing in competitions as their stated gender/sex. They will be questioned if they mark that they aren't the "traditional" one they display in physical form. They have to jump through numerous hoops just to be accepted. Even if this happens, they may still be disqualified from competing due to an unacclaimed, "advantage."
Things haven't gotten any easier as new tests have scrutinised the viability of future transgender athletes from competing.
A raft of athletes will no longer be allowed to compete in the women’s category at the World Athletics Championships, which are currently taking place in Tokyo, Japan.
Track and field body, World Athletics (WA), announced earlier this year that beginning from 1 September, anyone wanting to compete in the, "female category" of its elite events would be required to take a "once-in-a-lifetime test" in the form of a cheek swab or blood test that will screen athletes’ genetic samples. This will determine whether they contain the SRY gene – or "a genetic surrogate for a Y chromosome" – according to the organisation.
The decision comes following a World Athletics Council meeting where, along with a raft of other policy changes, the council agreed to adopt multiple recommended conditions of, "eligibility in the female category," WA confirmed in a press release.
Most people who have the SRY gene live their lives as men but there are some exceptions.
"The SRY gene is a key gene, probably the key gene, on the Y sex chromosome that directs a developing embryo towards the male development pathway," Alun Williams, professor of sport and exercise genomics at Manchester Metropolitan University explained.
"But there are a few – a very small proportion, but a few exceptions – and that’s where it gets complicated."
Variations in SRY gene expression are just one of a wide range of variations in chromosomes, hormones and anatomy that occur naturally in human development. People with these variations are sometimes known as intersex and have traits that may not align with typical binary definitions of female or male. These variations are sometimes called differences in sex development or DSD.
Williams said estimates suggest that between 0.02% to 2% of the population have differences in sex development, depending on definition. With a global population of over 8 billion people, this could mean that tens of millions of people worldwide are affected.
Payoshni Mitra, executive director of athlete rights organisation, Humans of Sport, said that sometimes, athletes don't know they have a DSD.
"Disproportionately, these regulations for decades now have impacted athletes from the Global South. In these countries, athletes do not have a support system that can help them understand exactly what is going on,” she said.
Per its regulations, World Athletics says that: "'biological male' means someone with a Y chromosome and 'biological female' means someone with no Y chromosome, irrespective of their legal sex and/or gender identity.”
Williams explained further: "Some people have a normally functioning SRY gene but a rare variation in one of several other genes required for it to have its usual effects, so they develop essentially as females despite having the SRY gene."
Williams explained that – in most people – sex chromosomes, other genes, sexual organs, internal organs and external organs are aligned male or female but that people with DSD have, "some different combinations of them," resulting in a, "whole range of possibilities."
Politics and scrutiny from around the world have caused athletics associations to adopt a variety of different approaches to allowing – and excluding – women with DSD from competition in women’s sport.
The new World Athletics regulations say that, "biological males" who have "not gone through male sexual development including any type of male puberty," are still eligible to compete in the female category.
Meanwhile, women whom World Athletics considers to have DSD – and who also have XY chromosomes – who had previously complied with the governing body’s previous eligibility criteria are eligible to compete in World Rankings Competitions so long as they maintain the concentration of testosterone in their blood "below 2.5 nmol/L at all times" and "cooperate fully with World Athletics’ efforts to monitor the concentration of testosterone" in their blood.
DSD athletes who don't have complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, and who had not previously competed and satisfied World Athletics eligibility criteria will not be able to compete in women’s world rankings under the latest rules.
This means that under the new rules, some emerging DSD athletes may never be able to take part in an elite women’s race.
Between 50 and 60 athletes who went through male puberty have been finalists in the female category in global and continental track and field championships since 2000, according to a senior World Athletics official.
In a presentation to a scientific panel in the Japanese capital on Friday, Dr. Stéphane Bermon, head of health and science at World Athletics, outlined why the sport’s governing body believes such screens are necessary as he presented data collected over the past 25 years. He said it showed that athletes with differences of DSD, who have a 46 XY karyotype with male testes but were reported female at birth, were significantly, "over-represented" in major finals and that it, "compromises the integrity of the female competitions."
"The philosophy that we hold dear in World Athletics is the protection and the promotion of the integrity of women’s sport,” he said. "It is really important in a sport that is permanently trying to attract more women that they enter a sport believing there is no biological glass ceiling."
"The test to confirm biological sex is a very important step in ensuring this is the case. We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female. It was always very clear to me and the World Athletics Council that gender cannot trump biology."
The move has been subject to some criticism from within the scientific and academic community, most notably from Andrew Sinclair, the professor who discovered the SRY gene. Sinclair decried using the SRY gene test to determine biological sex as, "overly simplistic" and not "cut and dried."
Olympic champion Imane Khelif has appealed a World Boxing decision barring her from upcoming events unless she undergoes genetic sex testing.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said that the Algerian boxer filed the appeal.
Khelif won a gold medal at the Paris Olympics last year amid international scrutiny on her and Taiwan's Lin Yu-ting, another gold medal winner. The previous governing body for Olympic boxing, the Russian-dominated International Boxing Association, disqualified both fighters from its 2023 world championships after saying they failed unspecified eligibility tests.
The IBA was banished because of decades of misdeeds and controversy. The IOC ran the past two Olympic boxing tournaments in its place and it applied the sex eligibility rules used in previous Olympics. Under those standards, Khelif and Lin were eligible to compete.
World Boxing has since been provisionally approved as the boxing organiser at the 2028 Los Angeles Games and has faced pressure from boxers and their federations to create sex eligibility standards.
In May, the governing body announced mandatory sex testing for all athletes and specifically mentioned Khelif when announcing the policy - something it later apologized for. Khelif plans to defend her welterweight gold medal at the L.A. Games. New IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, has initiated a task force to look at gender eligibility issues.
This particular topic has interested me. Through the research, I've learnt new things, such as the SRY gene. Nonetheless, I believe that this is unjust. Everyone should be able to participate.
Even if they barred from, "regular" competion, a separate, yet equal, division can be created for those athletes. Everyone should be granted a chance to compete; no matter how they choose to live their lives.