Sebastian Coe has told Sky News he will explore a complete ban on transgender women competing in women’s events at the Olympics if he wins the election to become the most powerful person in sport.
Lord Coe, who is one of seven candidates to become president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in March, returned to the site of his successful organising of London 2012 to launch a manifesto that vows to introduce “science-based policies that safeguard the female category”.
Calls to safeguard women’s sports have become a battleground in the election that will be decided in a secret vote of IOC members amid concerns sport could deepen the discrimination faced by the trans community, while others are concerned about the fairness and safety of competitions being risked.
During the Paris Olympics, the IOC’s current administration repeatedly said if your passport said you are a woman you can compete in women’s sport – leaving it to individual sports to decide on eligibility.
Lord Coe told Sky News he would “have a very clear policy that would be unambiguous, would be clear cut, but would be co-curated with all those stakeholders – so that it is relevant to the athletes, sport scientists, the national Olympic committees, the international federations. And they’re telling me that they want to be part of that journey.”
World Athletics, which has been led by Lord Coe since 2015, last year took a lead in sport by restricting the participation of male-to-female transgender athletes and tightening rules on those with differences in sex development (DSD).
“We’ve taken the lead at World Athletics, as you know, and I think for me the principle is very clear,” Lord Coe said.
“But if you have a vacuum around this policy position, then you end up with some of the things that we witnessed in Paris.”
The former double Olympic champion was referring to Imane Khelif, who won a women’s boxing gold medal after contentious claims around a failed gender eligibility test.
Asked if his proposed IOC regulations would reflect those in World Athletics, Lord Coe replied: “Probably – and it’s a policy that many international federations have now taken, including swimming.”
Pressed if that means no transgender women in any women’s categories, he replied: “We’ve been very clear in World Athletics that transgender athletes will not be competing in the female category at elite level.”
The manifesto of Spanish financier Juan Antonio Samaranch – a current IOC vice president – says the “IOC has a fundamental duty to safeguard women’s sport by adopting a policy to maintain unambiguous distinctions between men’s and women’s categories” but he is less clear-cut on the outcome.
Mr Samaranch told Sky News: “We are trying to protect the fairness and the safety of women’s competitions.
“Decision(s) may change between different sports.
“And that is the system today, but that is not giving an answer that is satisfying and giving peace of mind to so many people around the world. So we must do better.
“And I think… we need to find the scientific parameters that can help us put (in) a decision that affects everybody.
“And the IOC, we claim so many times that we need to lead and we are the leaders. We have to show leadership here as well.”
A second British candidate – Johan Eliasch – also called for the IOC to take a lead on gender and eligibility with a uniform approach across sport.
The International Ski Federation president wrote in his manifesto: “The IOC should lead the way, establishing a simple and clear policy to ensure a fair and safe environment for all athletes, particularly women.
“This will not be easy, for obvious reasons, but we must remember that the integrity and even the viability of women’s sport is at stake here. What is paramount is not public opinion or prevailing trends but the integrity and safety of women’s sport.”
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World cycling boss David Lappartient said the IOC must accept opinions on transgender eligibility within different sports may “vary”.
The Frenchman wrote: “It is a complex matter that must be dealt with rationally to strike the right balance between the need to respect human rights and the obligation to ensure fair competition.
“We cannot ignore what female athletes are saying, but our decisions must also be grounded on solid scientific evidence.
“The IOC must guide International Federations towards decisions based on common principles and avoid a situation in which each International Federation takes a different stance in equivalent scenarios, which could harm the unity of the Olympic Movement.”
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Three candidates do not mention the issue in their manifestos – Jordan’s Prince Feisal al Hussein, International Gymnastics Federation president Morinari Watanabe and former Olympic champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry from Zimbabwe.
Ms Coventry only briefly calls for the “strengthening of women’s sports by protecting female athletes” without saying how that is achieved.
Interviews were only offered to Sky News by Lord Coe and Mr Samaranch.
