World Athletics Approves New Regulations for Transgender Athletes

The World Athletics Council has made specific changes to the regulations applicable to transgender athletes and athletes with Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) for participating in the female classification at a World Rankings competition.

The council has decided to disallow male-to-female transgender athletes who have undergone male puberty from competing in the female category. Further, the updated regulations mandate that transgender athletes maintain their testosterone concentration below 2.5nmol/L to be eligible for the same.

The press release dated March 23, 2023, states that DSD athletes certainly have physical advantages compared to their female counterparts as per available data, but the same cannot be said in the case of transgender athletes since no such athletes are participating in international competitions. Against this backdrop, it has been decided to constitute a Working Group to conduct the necessary research, obtain views of transgender athletes and submit its recommendations to the council.