Copyright trinidadexpress
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) last week mandated DNA tests for athletes entering women’s events in the 2026 Winter Olympics. This aligns with -policies adopted by other athletics bodies since the controversies in last year’s Paris Olympic Games over biological males competing in women’s events. The issue erupted mainly in boxing, where two competitors— Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Taiwan—took gold medals. Given male boxers’ inherently greater strength, speed, and bone density, boxing is a sport where men hitting women could result in serious or fatal injuries. In other sports, the same physical superiority is just a matter of unfair advantage—but even that strikes at the very heart of the Olympic ethos and sports in general. At a scientific conference one week ago, the governing body for athletics, World Athletics, revealed that, in the past 25 years, about 60 male competitors reached 135 finals in women’s track and field events at major championships. Those figures were estimated from anti-doping protocols that detected -elevated -testosterone levels, which means the true figure is -probably higher. The new guidelines use a cheek swab for genetic -analysis, which shows whether an athlete has a Y-chromosome. Human males have an XY chromosome and human females, an XX one. This defines whether someone is biologically male or female, no matter whether they are homosexual, trans, or even intersex. Yet, 99% of the time, scientific analysis is not needed to tell whether someone is male or female—ordinary -humans have been doing so for at least 200,000 years. The new policy for sporting bodies has become necessary because of ideology. In the past few years, the trans lobby in developed countries, backed by politicians and the media, has given trans women (ie, XY males who present themselves as female) the social, cultural and legal authority to enter women’s spaces, not only in sports but in restrooms and even prisons. This is not about giving trans people the same rights as -heterosexuals, which is a matter of principle in any society that claims to adhere to equality before the law for all citizens. Since Trinidad and Tobago takes great pride in our athletes, as amply demonstrated over the past week, it was only a matter of time until this issue affected our sportswomen. Thankfully, that is now unlikely to happen since the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and other sports organisations like World Boxing, World Aquatics (formerly FINA), the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), and Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) are shifting towards sex tests. In martial arts, an arena where T&T athletes have historically performed well, no official guidelines are yet in place, but these bodies generally follow IOC protocols. Notably, Khelif and Yu-Ting did not compete in this month’s World Championships in Liverpool, which mandated DNA testing for women. In the heavyweight category, the gold medal was awarded to Agata Kaczmarska of Poland, who is 1.96 metres tall (six feet, five inches) and over 80 kilogrammes (176 pounds), but genetically all woman.
