Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts tagged as “Olympic Games”

International Olympic Committee announces new Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category in Olympic Sport  

March 28, 2026

IOC;

The policy explains that, for all disciplines on the sports programme of an IOC event, including the Olympic Games and for both individual and team sports, eligibility for any female category is limited to biological females.

Eligibility for the female category is to be determined in the first instance by SRY gene screening to detect the absence or presence of the SRY gene.

Based on scientific evidence, the IOC considers that the presence of the SRY gene is fixed throughout life and represents highly accurate evidence that an athlete has experienced male sex development. Furthermore, the IOC considers that SRY gene screening via saliva, cheek swab or blood sample is unintrusive compared to other possible methods.

In short, if you are not a “biological female” you will not be able to compete in any female events or sports. IOC noted that this new policy is not retroactive and applies only to elite IOC events.

Another thing to take note is that this “Policy on the Protection of the Female (Women’s) Category” is set to take effect starting with the LA28 Olympic Games.

Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games will now take place no later than summer 2021.

March 25, 2020

Due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee have decided to reschedule the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games from the previously planned 2020 games to a date that will not be later than the summer of 2021.

In a joint statement, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee said;

The unprecedented and unpredictable spread of the outbreak has seen the situation in the rest of the world deteriorating. Yesterday, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that the COVID-19 pandemic is “accelerating”. There are more than 375,000 cases now recorded worldwide and in nearly every country, and their number is growing by the hour.

In the present circumstances and based on the information provided by the WHO today, the IOC President and the Prime Minister of Japan have concluded that the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo must be rescheduled to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021, to safeguard the health of the athletes, everybody involved in the Olympic Games and the international community.

This will be the first time that the Olympics is reschedule, it was cancelled thrice due to war but never a pandemic. The 2021 will give every participating country and athletes enough time to heal and get back to training. It was also agreed that “the Olympic flame will stay in Japan and that the Games will keep the name Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.”

Image from @Tokyo2020