ATHLETICS BODY PLANS UPDATED GENDER RULES

Track and field head Coe says it is vital to revise sport’s female eligibility guidelines

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World Athletics has begun a consultation period for an updated set of regulations for transgender and difference of sex development (DSD) athletes, with a cheek swab test among a number of proposals being considered, the governing body said on Feb 10.

In 2023, track and field's global governing body voted to ban transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in women's events and announced the formation of a working group to further study the issue of trans inclusion.

In the findings announced by the working group on Feb 10, it said exclusively basing the regulations on whether or not an athlete had gone through male puberty was wrong.

"New evidence clarifies that there is already an athletically significant performance gap before the onset of puberty," it added.

"The childhood or pre-pubertal performance gap in the sport of athletics specifically is 3 to 5 per cent in running events, and higher in throwing and jumping events.