Lord Coe aiming for complete transgender ban in women's events if he becomes Olympics chief
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Sebastian Coe has told Sky News he will explore a complete ban on transgender women competing in women's events at the Olympics if he wins the election to become the most powerful person in sport. Lord Coe, who is one of seven candidates to become president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in March, returned to the site of his successful organising of London 2012 to launch a manifesto that vows to introduce "science-based policies that safeguard the female category".
Calls to safeguard women's sports have become a battleground in the election that will be decided in a secret vote of IOC members amid concerns sport could deepen the discrimination faced by the trans community, while others are concerned about the fairness and safety of competitions being risked.
During the Paris Olympics, the IOC's current administration repeatedly said if your passport said you are a woman you can compete in women's sport - leaving it to individual sports to decide on eligibility. Lord Coe told Sky News he would "have a very clear policy that would be unambiguous, would be clear cut, but would be co-curated with all those stakeholders - so that it is relevant to the athletes, sport scientists, the national Olympic committees, the international federations. And they're telling me that they want to be part of that journey.".
