In a move to uphold the integrity of women’s sports, World Athletics has announced plans to implement sex verification testing through cheek swabs or dry blood tests for elite female athletes.
The new pre-clearance testing procedure, described by officials as “very straightforward” and “very clear,” will apply to athletes competing in the female category. According to the governing body, the test will only need to be administered once in an athlete’s career.
“It’s important to do it because it maintains everything that we’ve been talking about, particularly recently about not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it,” a World Athletics official explained.
The organization emphasized that finding the right provider with sufficient capacity and scale is crucial for implementing this global verification system. World Athletics officials insisted that the chosen methods—either cheek swabs or dry blood tests—are non-invasive while being necessary to maintain competitive fairness.
When questioned about potential criticism regarding the intrusiveness of the testing, the response was firm: “Neither of these are invasive. They are necessary and they will be done to absolutely international medical standards.”
This move follows years of efforts by World Athletics to establish clear guidelines for competition eligibility. Officials referenced the organization’s Differences of Sexual Development (DSD) regulations, which have been challenged but ultimately upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, including after appeal.
“We wouldn’t have set off down this path in 2016, 2017 to protect the female category in sport if I’d been anything other than prepared to take the challenge head on,” stated a World Athletics representative. “We will doggedly protect the female category and we’ll do whatever is necessary to do it. And we’re not just talking about it.”
The announcement represents the latest development in the ongoing global conversation about gender verification in sports and how governing bodies determine eligibility for women’s competitions at the highest levels.
