Olympics chiefs BAN record of ‘dangerous’ phrases describing trans athletes

The organisation in charge of running the Olympic Games has sparked outrage after telling journalists not to use a list of ‘harmful’ words when referring to transgender athletes competing at Paris 2024 this summer.

In a new 33-page document, the International Olympic Committee warned the media against using terms such as ‘born male’, ‘born female’, ‘biologically male’ and ‘biologically female’, which they claim is ‘problematic language’.

The IOC also urges the press to avoid ‘sex change’, ‘post-operative surgery’ and ‘transsexual’. They said these phrases ‘can be dehumanising and inaccurate’ when describing transgender sportspeople and athletes with sex variations.

The body has also provided alternatives for journalists to use in their reporting of transgender athletes during the Olympics in Paris, including girl/boy, woman/man, transgender girl/boy, transgender woman/man and transgender person.

‘It is always preferable to emphasise a person’s actual gender rather than potentially calling their identity into question by referring to the sex category that was registered on their original birth certificate,’ the IOC document reads.

The IOC has published a new document on reporting about transgender athletes at Paris 2024

Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics in 2021

Olympic swimming silver medallist Sharron Davies – an outspoken critic of transgender women competing in female sport – told Mail Sport: ‘The IOC never fails to disappoint me with their utter hypocrisy.

‘Here they are trying to curtail journalists from telling the public the truth when males are in races for females with an unfair advantage at the same time as boasting all over social media of the first games with gender equality – you couldn’t make this stuff up.

‘My experience of 50 years in elite sport, and having written and researched the history of the modern Olympics for my book, the misogyny the IOC has always exhibited doesn’t change sadly.’

Three-time cycling Olympian Inga Thompson slammed the IOC on X, formerly known as Twitter. ‘The IOC has allowed themselves to be bought because deep down, they never wanted women to be in sports,’ she wrote. ‘The ultimate misogynist movement perpetuated by the IOC.’

Athletics, cycling, swimming, rugby and rowing are among the sports to ban transgender competitors from elite women’s races at the Olympics and other major events if they have been through female puberty.

The IOC does not have their own policy, instead shifting responsibility to individual sports to decide their own rules. 

Laurel Hubbard became the first transgender athlete to compete at an Olympics when she represented New Zealand at the Covid-delayed Games in Tokyo in 2021.

There had been concerns over her participation but she finished last in the women’s 125kg category. 

It comes amid fears transgender women who have been through male puberty have an unfair advantage. Swimming was forced to take action after Lia Thomas, a transgender woman, sparked controversy after winning gold in a women’s event after previously being the 554th-ranked male in the US.

In April, culture secretary Lucy Frazer urged British sports to ban transgender athletes from competing against women.

‘In competitive sport, biology matters,’ Ms Frazer wrote in The Mail. ‘And where male strength, size and body shape gives athletes an indisputable edge, this should not be ignored.

‘By protecting the female category, they can keep women’s competitive sport safe and fair and keep the dream alive for the young girls who dream of one day being elite sportswomen.

‘We must get back to giving women a level playing field to compete. We need to give women a sporting chance.

This summer’s Olympic Games is scheduled to run in Paris from Friday, July 26 to Sunday, August 11.

An IOC spokesperson said: ‘The Olympic Games are the only event that brings the entire world together in these difficult times. 

‘The Olympics are about athletes from all corners of the world, from many different backgrounds and different beliefs, competing in peaceful competition. In this divided world, it is something precious we should all cherish.’