The International Journal of the History of Sport

Revisiting Sex Verification in Sport: New Historical Perspectives

In 2025, World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) approved a new procedure to determine eligibility in the women’s category of sport at world-ranking competitions. It mandated that competitors undergo a cheek swab or blood test to detect the presence or absence of the Sex-determining Region Y (SRY) gene. The policy went into effect for the World Championships in September of that year. Six months later, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that it would also use SRY genetic screening to determine eligibility in women’s competitions, starting with the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

World Athletics and the IOC have reintroduced an eligibility policy based on scientific testing, a practice both organizations had previously abandoned. From 1967 to 1992, World Athletics required on-site, laboratory testing; the IOC instituted similar controls from 1968 to 1999.

This return to verification policies allows scholars a chance to offer new historical perspectives on sex verification in sport.

Previous work by historians analysed the justifications for sex checks in specific political contexts, such as the interwar and Cold War eras. Other scholarship has focused on the IOC and IAAF, the organizations that spearheaded the policies. Scholars have also assessed the validity and ethics of the various scientific techniques used, reporting on the nude parades, Barr Body testing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for the SRY gene, health checks, hyperandrogenism regulations, and testosterone thresholds. This special issue aims to broaden the conversation and shed new historical light on sex verification in sport.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

• Histories of testing at local, national, and regional competitions
• Accounts of athletes’ experiences with sex testing and gender verification
• Analyses of athletes and institutions challenging the gender binary and/or gender verification
• Experiences of gender diverse athletes, trans athletes, and non-binary athletes
• Histories of androgen/testosterone and the SRY gene in sport
• Experiences of racialized women athletes, especially those from outside of Europe and North America
• Archives and/or the production of knowledge about sex verification in sport
• Perspectives of coaches, physicians, and laboratory personnel involved in verification processes