Athletics exclude transgender athletes from female events

World Athletics has voted to exclude transgender women from female events.

The ruling will be enforced from 31 March this year on elite competition transgender athletes who have transitioned from male to female after going through puberty. The council voted to reduce plasma testosterone for athletes with differences in sex development DSD in half, to 2.5 nanomoles per liter from five.

The tighter rules will affect DSD athletes such as two-time Olympic 800 m champion Caster Semenya, Christine Mboma, the Olympic silver medallist in the 200 m at Tokyo Games, and Francine Niyonsaba, who finished runner-up to Semenya in the 800 m at Rio 2016.

The World Athletics CouncilWorld Athletics Council has taken decisive action to protect the female category in our sport and restrict participation of trans athletes, according to Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics president.

Lord Coe said Russian athletes will be barred from the track and field for the foreseeable future because of the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The International Olympic Committee is looking at a pathway for Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete as neutrals at the next year's Olympic Games in Paris.

They are unlikely to be able to feature in athletics in Paris, arguably the highest-profile Olympic sport.

Coe told the World Athletics Council that Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be included in all World Series events for the foreseeable future due to the invasion and ongoing war in Ukraine.