Former Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe has published his manifesto of his vision as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as he campaigns for the position ahead of 2025.
Coe’s manifesto emphasizes the importance of protecting female athletes, in a year that has been plagued by global outrage over trans athletes in women’s sports.
Unlike current IOC president Thomas Bach, Coe strongly opposes the inclusion of trans people in the women’s category and said he would explore an outright ban on trans athletes in an interview with Sky News on Thursday.
Coe is the current director of World Athletics, the governing body for international athletics competitions. In 2023, the governing body tightened its regulations on trans athletes to exclude transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in the women’s category. That regulation also lowered the maximum testosterone level for eligible female competitors.
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Coe told Sky News that if elected IOC president, the Olympics would have a new policy that would “probably” mirror World Athletics’ current restrictions.
“We will have a very clear policy that will not be ambiguous,” Coe said. “We have been very clear at World Athletics that transgender athletes will not compete in the women’s category at an elite level.”
Coe declined to say whether he would advocate for mandatory sex eligibility testing for Olympic athletes.
In criticizing the IOC’s current policies on the issue, Coe referenced an incident that occurred at the recent Paris Olympics. The recent summer games were overshadowed by controversy when Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting won gold medals in women’s boxing.
Both athletes had previously been disqualified from international competitions for failing gender eligibility tests. However, the IOC and current president Thomas Bach supported the inclusion of both athletes, insisting that they were qualified to compete as women under current rules.
“If there is a vacuum around this political position, then we will end up with some of the things we witnessed in Paris,” Coe said.
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Coe previously said in a November interview with the BBC that the situation involving Khelif and Lin made him feel “uncomfortable.” It has not been confirmed that any of the athletes are transgender.
He United Nations The results of a published study say that almost 900 biological women have not stood on the podium because they have been defeated by transgender athletes.
The study, titled “Violence against women and girls in sports“, said that more than 600 athletes did not obtain medals in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, for a total of more than 890 medals, according to information obtained up to March 30.
“The replacement of the women’s sports category with a mixed category has caused an increasing number of athletes to lose opportunities, including medals, when competing against men,” the report states.
In the United States, the inclusion of trans people in women’s sports became an issue with great opposition in 2024, especially from conservatives, but some liberals also spoke out against it.
Polls show that most Americans do not favor the inclusion of trans people in women’s sports, which was a key campaign issue for Trump and other Republicans in the recent cycle.
Lord Sebastian Coe speaks during a memorial service for Kevan Gosper AO in the Olympic Hall at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on September 17, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. Gosper was an Olympian, former President of the COA and Vice President of the IOC, who died on July 19, 2024, after a brief illness. (Daniel Pockett/Getty Images for AOC)
Nearly 70% of Americans Don’t Believe Biological Men Should Be Allowed to Compete in Women’s Sports, Study Finds Gallup poll taken last year.
In June, a survey conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago asked respondents to weigh in on whether transgender athletes of both sexes should be allowed to participate in sports leagues that correspond to their preferred gender identity rather than their biological sex. Sixty-five percent responded that it should never or rarely be allowed. When respondents were asked specifically about adult transgender athletes competing on women’s sports teams, 69% were opposed.
