Explainer-Olympics-Can transgender athletes compete at the Milano Cortina Winter Games?

By Karolos Grohmann

MILAN, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics opens on Friday, bringing the world’s top athletes together in the biggest winter sports show on earth. The Games will be the last one to be held with the existing and fragmented regulations regarding the eligibility of transgender athletes in women’s categories.

The International Olympic Committee is expected to shortly issue new and universal guidelines, which it says are designed to protect women’s sport. 

WHY HAS THE ISSUE OF TRANSGENDER ATHLETES AT ELITE SPORTS BECOME CONTROVERSIAL?

The issue of transgender athletes at the Olympics and other top sports events has become a controversial issue in recent years due to the lack of clear and universal rules governing sport. 

Sporting bodies have had to balance the twin aims of protecting the women’s category but also allowing the free participation for all in sports without any discrimination.

Transgender advocacy groups say excluding trans athletes amounts to discrimination.

Critics of transgender inclusion in women’s sport say that the process of going through male puberty imbues athletes with a huge musculo-skeletal advantage that transition does not mitigate.

U.S. President Donald Trump last year banned transgender athletes in the country from competing in college and pro events in the female category.

CAN TRANSGENDER ATHLETES CURRENTLY COMPETE IN THE OLYMPICS?

Yes, under existing rules transgender athletes can participate in the summer and winter Olympics once they have been cleared to do so by their respective sports federations. Currently it is up to each sports federation to draw up participation rules for transgender athletes. There is no universal rule governing their participation or eligibility in pro sports.

ARE THERE TRANSGENDER ATHLETES SET TO COMPETE AT THE MILANO-CORTINA 2026 WINTER OLYMPICS.

Yes, transgender athletes are set to compete in Italy’s Games, including Elis Lundholm, a Swedish mogul skier. Lundholm was born a female and identifies as a man. The 23-year-old will be competing in the women’s category.

Lundholm would still be eligible to compete in the future no matter the restrictions for transgender athletes, as according to the IOC, the Swede’s participation is “in accordance with (international skiing federation) FIS eligibility criteria.”

“Elis Lundholm competes in the female category, which is aligned with the sex of this athlete,” the IOC told Reuters.

IS THERE A UNIVERSAL RULE IN SPORTS FOR THE PARTICIPATION OF TRANSGENDER ATHLETES?

No, there is currently no universal rule regarding the participation of transgender athletes in professional or elite sports. The International Olympic Committee long refused to apply any universal rule on transgender participation for the Games.

It instructed international federations in 2021 to come up with their own guidelines. 

The IOC’s 2021 guidelines on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination suggested that federations prioritised the inclusion of gender non-conforming athletes in the category of their choice, while making no presumptions of unfair advantage.

Under new IOC president Kirsty Coventry, however, the Olympic body did a u-turn in 2025 and decided to take the lead in setting eligibility criteria with fairness of competition the foremost consideration.

The IOC has said it will issue its new rules on participation of transgender athletes in the first quarter of 2026. Under rules still in force, transgender athletes are eligible to take part in the Olympics.

ARE THERE INTERNATIONAL SPORTS FEDERATIONS THAT HAVE BANNED TRANSGENDER ATHLETES’ PARTICIPATION?

Yes, there are several major sports federations that have restricted the participation of transgender athletes in women’s competitions.

World Rugby banned transgender athletes from competing at elite level, while World Athletics does not allow transgender athletes who have undergone male puberty to compete.

World Aquatics allows transgender athletes who have transitioned before the age of 12 to compete, but not those who have done so after that age.

The situation remains somewhat murky in soccer, the world’s most popular sport, with FIFA yet to announce a long-promised policy update.  

Some individual associations, including the English FA, have unilaterally banned transgender players from competing in women’s competitions.

In 2025, boxing and athletics introduced mandatory tests for athletes in the female category to detect the SRY gene, which is on the Y chromosome and triggers the development of male characteristics in mammals.

WHAT ABOUT U.S. PRESIDENT TRUMP’S NATIONWIDE BAN OF TRANSGENDER ATHLETES?

U.S. President Trump has banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports in schools in the United States.

Trump, who signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order in February 2025, has said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

Following Trump’s decision, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee also changed its rules accordingly, banning transgender athletes from taking part in women’s sports.

HAVE TRANSGENDER ATHLETES TAKEN PART IN PAST OLYMPICS?

Yes, a small number of openly transgender athletes have taken part in past editions of the Olympic Games. New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category to that assigned at birth when the weightlifter took part in the women’s weightlifting competition at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)