Transgender Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner celebrated Thursday’s announcement that biological men are to be barred from competing in women’s Olympic sports, and credited the organization’s first female president for the change.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) explained in a press release and accompanying video that transgender athletes will now have to compete according to their biological sex. The organization is mandating genetic testing for the SRY gene in order to determine eligibility in the female category in all disciplines, both individual and team. Jenner — a biological male who won the gold medal in Men’s decathlon during the 1976 Summer Olympics as Bruce Jenner — credited IOC President Kirsty Coventry for the new rules while discussing the issue with Fox News’ “America Reports” co-anchors Sandra Smith and John Roberts. (RELATED: School District Honors Biological Male Congressman For Women’s History Month)
“Yay! Finally.” Jenner said. “We’ve been talking about this forever, and Kirsty Coventry is the first female president of the IOC, and she’s the first one to make the right decision. I think she has a better understanding of the issue.”
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“We know it’s wrong. It’s been wrong forever and to be honest with you, to give our viewers a little bit of the history of this issue, it just didn’t start recently,” Jenner continued. “This started way back when I was competing. … Back in the 70s, we had the East German women, we had the Soviet women. I was in the weight room five days before I competed and there was this East German discus thrower and she out-lifted me so bad it was a joke. And I’m wondering why.”
“Well, they started testing way back then. They knew it was wrong back then,” the retired athlete added. “So all the women, when they came through the 70’s to the Olympics, they had to take a gene test to make sure that they were XX.”
The Olympic decision comes after several years of high profiles cases regarding the issue of biological males who identify as transgender competing in women’s sports, which became controversial cases like Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA championships, where the swimmer won the 500-yard women’s final. That year, during a North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb suffered a career-ending concussion when a transgender player’s spike hit her in the face.
The IOC previously offered reporters a “practical guide” in ensuring “fair representation” in a June 2024 release. In the guidelines, phrases like “biological male,” “born male,” “male-to-female (MtF)” and “genetically male” were listed as “Terms to Avoid” under a section called “Problematic Language.” (Click Here To Watch The Daily Caller Documentary “Do No Harm”)
Imane Khelif controversially won a gold medal boxing in the women’s welterweight division during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France after the biological male was allowed to fight women despite previously being barred from the world championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA). Khelif admitted to having a Y chromosome in February during an interview with L’Equipe, a French sports outlet.
The decision drew praise online from activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines, Republican Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon.
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