FILE - Candidate to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee Johan Eliasch arrives at the mixed zone during a break of the 144th session, which will elect the new IOC President, in Costa Navarino, western Greece, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
Skiing’s governing body approves gender eligibility testing policy
GENEVA (AP) 鈥 Skiing鈥檚 governing body approved a gene testing policy for gender eligibility in women’s events Wednesday, but delayed a decision on letting some Russian athletes try to qualify with neutral status for next year’s Winter Olympics.
FILE - Candidate to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee Johan Eliasch arrives at the mixed zone during a break of the 144th session, which will elect the new IOC President, in Costa Navarino, western Greece, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
GENEVA (AP) 鈥 Skiing鈥檚 governing body approved a gene testing policy for gender eligibility in women’s events Wednesday, but delayed a decision on letting some Russian athletes try to qualify with neutral status for next year’s Winter Olympics.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said it will work with national team officials on implementing the policy, which follows the lead taken by
鈥淭he eligibility conditions laid out in the policy are grounded on the presence or absence of the so-called SRY gene, the sex-determining gene present on humans鈥 Y chromosome,鈥 FIS said in a statement.
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It was not clear to what extent athletes with the SRY gene have previously competed in women鈥檚 events in FIS disciplines, which include Alpine and cross-country skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle skiing.
Both FIS president Johan Eliasch and World Athletics leader Sebastian Coe campaigned as this year promising to protect the female category.
鈥淭his policy is the cornerstone of our commitment to protect women鈥檚 sport,鈥 Eliasch said Wednesday in a FIS statement, 鈥渁nd we are convinced that there is only one fair and transparent way to do that: by relying on science and biological facts.鈥
The IOC now has its first female president, two-time Olympic champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who has overseen creating a working group of experts to
An issue for athletes in France and Norway, which are both strong in winter sports, is that both countries have national laws prohibiting gene testing for nonmedical reasons.
Ahead of the track and field world championships in Tokyo this month, French and Norwegian athletes were tested after arriving in Japan.
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FIS did not publish a timetable for a testing program. The Milan-Cortina d鈥橝mpezzo Winter Games open Feb. 6.
Russian athlete policy
from international competitions within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022. The war began four days after the closing ceremony at the Beijing Winter Games, where Russian athletes won 32 medals, including five gold, and the Belarus team won two silvers.
The FIS ruling council on Wednesday discussed but did not reach a decision on extending the ban or approving a neutral status policy for individual athletes ahead of the next Olympics. The council next meets Oct. 21.
The IOC has barred Russia and Belarus from team sports at Summer Games and Winter Games. Governing bodies of Olympic sports were advised to look at giving some of the countries鈥 athletes neutral status 鈥 if they had not publicly supported the war, and were not linked to military and state security services.
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