‘Sad and pathetic’: Human rights lawyer slams IOC transgender policy

The Australian Olympic Committee has endorsed the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) new eligibility policy and ban on transgender athletes, but the decision has come under fire from human rights lawyer and former Olympic swimmer Nikki Dryden, who said the IOC was caving in to the demands of US President Donald Trump.

Under the new guidelines, female athletes will be subjected to a mandatory gene test once in their career to confirm they are a woman, which aligns with Trump’s Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order ahead of the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social, congratulated the IOC and took credit for the decision, saying, “this is only happening because of my powerful executive order”.

It is unclear how many, if any, transgender women are competing at an Olympic level. No woman who transitioned from being born male competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Games, though weightlifter Laurel Hubbard did at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 without winning a medal.

“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females,” the IOC said on Thursday.

The genetic test – known as the SRY gene screening – is conducted via saliva, a cheek swab or a blood sample.

Dryden said the mandatory testing goes against Australia’s anti-discrimination laws and raises serious questions around medical ethics and consent by making medical testing compulsory, especially for athletes under the age of 18. She also said Australian sporting bodies and lawmakers need to start thinking about how this affects a home Olympics in Brisbane in 2032.

“The IOC has gone to great pains to talk about this being elite sport only, but that creates a presumption that there’s actually a divide between grassroots or community sport and elite sport, and there’s not. In many cases, overlap is constant, athletes are going from one to the next,” Dryden said.

“But also, when we start talking about things like puberty and pre-puberty, and when we’re going to test people, we are going to be testing young girls, and I think it’s really important for us to acknowledge that that is going to happen. This is going to happen to young girls and children under the age of 18.

“It is going to impact Australian sport if we allow it. But what I would like to see is our very good Australian policies, and our very strong laws that protect against this kind of thing, we fight for that. And we fight against these types of measures happening.”

The IOC said the new policy protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category. IOC president Kirsty Coventry said the organisation wanted a clear policy rather than let individual governing bodies draft their own rules.

“At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” said Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in swimming. “So, it is absolutely clear that it would not be fair for biological males to compete in the female category.”

AOC president Ian Chesterman said the organisation welcomed the changes and confirmed sporting bodies and Olympians were consulted as part of the decision-making process.

“This is a challenging and complex subject, and at the AOC we approach it with empathy and understanding. The IOC’s decision applies to elite Olympic sport,” Chesterman said.

“This decision provides clarity for elite female athletes who compete at the highest level and demonstrates a commitment to fairness, safety and integrity in Olympic competition … As the IOC has stated, at the highest level of sport, the smallest margins can determine outcomes, and clarity around eligibility is critical for female athletes to continue to compete on a level playing field.”

Dryden said Australia was world-leading in gender inclusion policy, and once the Olympic flame goes out in Los Angeles, Australia would need to decide how, and if, they would implement similar restrictions for 2032 in Brisbane.

“The Australian federal government and Australian sporting institutions should have a position on this, and it should be that we abide by our own law and policy,” Dryden said.

“From a really practical perspective, I think we just have to try and minimise harm for the next two years, at least until LA … But when our Olympics start, we need to be doubling down on the type of Olympics that we want to host in Australia, and it should be law-abiding, it should be equal, and it should be inclusive. That’s what our law and policy says.

“Practically, we’re in a hard position because this is a battle that has been lost in the United States. It’s politics, it’s not about sport, it’s about something else in the United States, and the IOC has caved to Donald Trump’s demands, which is sad and pathetic, and I think we’re in a holding pattern until it becomes our chance to be the focus of the Olympic movement, and at the point in time we need to be ready to stand up for Australian values.”

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