{"id":494921,"date":"2025-07-30T16:25:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/?post_type=news&#038;p=494921"},"modified":"2025-07-30T16:25:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:25:22","slug":"world-athletics-to-introduce-gene-test-for-female-category-eligibility","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/world-athletics-to-introduce-gene-test-for-female-category-eligibility\/","title":{"rendered":"World Athletics to introduce gene test for female category eligibility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Starting this September, athletes who want to compete in the female category at world-ranking events will be required to undergo a one-time genetic test, World Athletics has announced. The new rule, set to come into effect on 1 September, will apply to all World Athletics events, including the upcoming World Championships in Tokyo, scheduled for 13\u201321 September.<\/p>\n<p>The test will check for the presence of the SRY gene, found on the Y chromosome, which is responsible for initiating male biological development. Athletes can take the test through a simple cheek swab or a blood sample. A negative result\u2014indicating no Y chromosome\u2014is required for eligibility in the female category at elite-level, world-ranking competitions.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">NEW: World Athletics introduces SRY gene test for athletes wishing to compete in the female category. Will be brought in ahead of World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TrTeBNpwdk\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/t.co\/TrTeBNpwdk<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Lawton (@Lawton_Times) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Lawton_Times\/status\/1950542958857466320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Those who test positive will not be eligible for the female category in world-ranking events, but may still compete in that category at non-ranking meets or in alternative classifications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt 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,\u201d said World Athletics president Lord Sebastian Coe. He emphasized the organization\u2019s position: \u201cAt elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female. Gender cannot trump biology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>World Athletics described the gene test as &#8220;extremely accurate&#8221; and noted that false positives or negatives are &#8220;extremely unlikely.&#8221; Member federations will oversee the administration of the one-time test.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The World Athletics Council has approved new regulations concerning eligibility conditions to compete in the female category for world ranking competitions.<\/p>\n<p>The new regulations come into effect on 1 September 2025 and will be applied to the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/BO8Lz4kfwS\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/BO8Lz4kfwS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WorldAthletics\/status\/1950542612370276784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">July 30, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The move follows similar decisions by other sporting bodies, including World Boxing, which adopted mandatory sex testing in May and also approved use of the SRY test.<\/p>\n<p>The introduction of the gene test stems from a broader effort by World Athletics to clarify eligibility criteria for transgender and athletes with differences of sex development (DSD). In March 2023, the governing body implemented a ban on transgender athletes who have undergone male puberty from competing in the female category at international level.<\/p>\n<p>Coe expressed gratitude to the organization&#8217;s global partners: \u201cWe particularly want to thank our member federations for their support and commitment in the implementation of these new regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Starting this September, athletes who want to compete in the female category at world-ranking events will be required to undergo a one-time genetic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":494922,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[21039,21101],"news_category":[20292,16715],"gn_keywords":[21041,21102],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"The World Boxing introduced similar test earlier this year to keep the fair play in women categories","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/494921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494921"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/494921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494924,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/494921\/revisions\/494924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/494922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494921"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=494921"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=494921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}