Transgender Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner is applauding the International Olympic Committees decision to bar biological males from competing in womens events, calling the move long overdue and crediting the organizations first female president for finally acting.
According to the Daily Caller, the IOC announced Thursday that athletes who identify as transgender will now be required to compete on the basis of their biological sex rather than self-declared gender identity. The committee detailed in a press release and video that it will mandate genetic testing for the SRY gene to determine eligibility for the female category across all sports, both individual and team, marking a decisive shift away from the ideological language that has dominated recent debates.
Jenner a biological male who captured Olympic gold in the mens decathlon at the 1976 Summer Games while competing as Bruce Jenner praised IOC President Kirsty Coventry for spearheading the policy change during an appearance on Fox News America Reports with co-anchors Sandra Smith and John Roberts. Yay! Finally. Jenner said. Weve been talking about this forever, and Kirsty Coventry is the first female president of the IOC, and shes the first one to make the right decision. I think she has a better understanding of the issue.
The former Olympian argued that the unfairness of allowing males into womens competition has been obvious for decades, long before todays gender-identity politics took hold. We know its wrong. Its been wrong forever and to be honest with you, to give our viewers a little bit of the history of this issue, it just didnt start recently, Jenner continued. This started way back when I was competing. Back in the 70s, we had the East German women, we had the Soviet women. I was in the weight room five days before I competed and there was this East German discus thrower and she out-lifted me so bad it was a joke. And Im wondering why.
Jenner noted that Olympic officials were willing to test for sex-based advantages decades ago, underscoring that the science has never been in doubt even if the politics have shifted. Well, they started testing way back then. They knew it was wrong back then, the retired athlete added. So all the women, when they came through the 70s to the Olympics, they had to take a gene test to make sure that they were XX.
The IOCs new stance follows years of public outrage over biological males dominating womens competitions, with many conservatives warning that progressive gender policies were erasing hard-won opportunities for female athletes. The controversy intensified after Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as transgender, won the womens 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships, and after North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered a career-ending concussion when a spike from a transgender opponent struck her in the face.
Until now, Olympic officials had largely embraced the language and priorities of gender activists, even issuing a June 2024 practical guide for reporters on fair representation. In that document, the IOC listed terms such as biological male, born male, male-to-female (MtF) and genetically male as Terms to Avoid under a section labeled Problematic Language, effectively pressuring media to downplay biological reality in favor of ideological framing.
The debate was further inflamed during the 2024 Paris Games when Imane Khelif, a biological male, was allowed to box in the womens welterweight division and went on to win gold. Khelif had previously been barred from the world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) and admitted to having a Y chromosome in a February interview with French sports outlet LEquipe, raising serious questions about safety and fairness for female fighters forced into the ring with male-bodied opponents.
News of the IOCs reversal drew swift praise from womens sports advocates and conservative leaders who have long argued that sex-based categories are essential to genuine equality. The decision was celebrated online by activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, Republican Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, signaling growing momentum for policies that recognize biological differences and protect womens competition from ideological experimentation.
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