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World Athletics is the governing body for track and field events including those held at the Olympics. Today the group announced that it will introduce a cheek swab to verify that everyone competing in women’s events are biological women.
Just days after losing the battle to become president of the International Olympic Committee, Seb Coe is back in action as president of World Athletics and, speaking at the close of the governing body’s latest council meeting, he said “pre-clearance tests” will be introduced soon for female athletes.
These will include cheek-swab or dry blood tests and will be non-invasive. They will only be necessary once in an athlete’s career, too. New regulations, he added, will be drafted in coming weeks with the chance the tests could be introduced ahead of the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
Coe said: “It’s important to do it because it maintains everything that we’ve been talking about, and particularly recently, about not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it. We feel this is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.
“We will doggedly protect the female category, and we’ll do whatever is necessary to do it.”
Coe had been at the forefront of taking on this issue for several years. World Athletics had already limited women’s races to biological women but the new rule will change the eligibility of people with rare genetic differences that give them an advantage.
Mr. Coe, an unsuccessful candidate in the recent election to lead the International Olympic Committee, has been a polarizing force in his zeal on this issue.
