EVERY female athlete must undergo a cheek swab to confirm their gender before they can compete at the World Athletics Championships.
World Athletics – the governing body of track-and-field – has confirmed that athletes must pass the gene test to compete in women’s events before the global meet in September.
It comes after Imane Khelif’s controversial boxing gold at the Paris Olympics[/caption]
All athletes wishing to compete in the female category at the World Championships are required to undergo a once-in-a-lifetime test for the SRY gene – a reliable proxy for determining biological sex.
This follows the controversy surrounding the gold medals won by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting at the Paris 2024 Olympics, which sparked furore across the globe.
During Khelif’s run to the final, she was embroiled in a bitter gender row, having been banned from International Boxing Association competition in 2023.
The IOC – which replaced the Russia-led IBA as the Olympic’s boxing governing body – were warned about the tests and urged to remove Khelif from the competition.
The new regulations come into effect on 1 September 2025 and will be applied to the Athletics Championships in Tokyo that begins on 13 September.
The test is non-invasive in the form of a DNA cheek swab or blood test, whichever is more convenient.
Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, says the organisation are determined to “protect and the promote of the integrity of women’s sport.”
He added: “We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female.
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“It was always very clear to me and the World Athletics Council that gender cannot trump biology.
The new regulations follow recommendations from the Gender Diverse Athlete Working Group approved by Council in March 2025.
In February, a World Athletics working group on gender diverse athletes said that the required test will be for the SRY gene – and, if required, testosterone levels – either via cheek swab with any necessary follow-up, or via dry blood spot analysis.
The test will look for the SRY gene which is part of the Y chromosome and causes male characteristics to develop.
Coe, 68, is set to stand down as head of World Athletics when his third and final tenure ends in 2027.
When previously asked if he was prepared for any criticism over perceived intrusiveness, Coe replied: “No. Neither of these are invasive.
“They are necessary and they will be done to international medical standards.
“This has been a widely-held and pretty exhaustive review and overwhelmingly the view has come back that this is absolutely the way to go within caveats.”
Sebastian Coe said World Athletics are determined to ‘protect and the promote of the integrity of women’s sport’[/caption]
