World Athletics Mandates Swab Tests For Female Athletes To Verify Biological Sex

World Athletics has announced that all female athletes will undergo swab tests to verify their biological sex.

President Sebastian Coe stated that the decision by the World Athletics Council underscores the organization’s commitment to fiercely protecting the integrity of the female category.

While an official timeline for implementing pre-clearance testing has not been set, the PA news agency reports that World Athletics aims to have the process in place for athletes competing in the female category at the World Championships in Tokyo this September.

Coe said on Tuesday: ‘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.’

Former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies MBE, a vocal advocate against trans athletes competing in women’s events, welcomed the news on Tuesday. She also urged for medals to be reissued to female athletes who were “unfairly robbed” in past competitions.

She posted on social media platform X: ‘No more cheating in track and fields by males in a category for females. I’d very much like to see medals re issued for events ruined and women unfairly robbed!’

World Athletics conducted consultation on the proposal earlier this year, and Coe said: ‘Overwhelmingly, the view has come back that this is absolutely the way to go, within the caveats raised (on testing not being too intrusive).’

Asked whether he felt the policy would stand up to legal challenge and scrutiny, Coe said: ‘Yes I am, but you accept the fact that that is the world we live in.

‘I would never have set off down this path to protect the female category in sport if I’d been anything other than prepared to take the challenge head on. We’ve been to the Court of Arbitration on our DSD (difference of sexual development) regulations.

‘They have been upheld, and they have again been upheld after appeal. So we will doggedly protect the female category, and we’ll do whatever is necessary to do it.’