Why Kicking Men Out of Women’s Sports in Also Good for Men

The International Olympic Committee’s (OIC) announcement on March 26, 2026, that only actual women can compete in women’s sports. This is being heralded as a victory for women, and it is, but it is also a victory for men.

No longer will a few biological men be allowed to embarrass the rest of those with Y chromosomes by beating up women (boxing), by pounding volley balls into their heads, and more.

Now women’s sports, at least in the Olympics, will only be for those with XX chromosomes.

The IOC framed the policy plainly by saying it “protects fairness, safety and integrity in the female category.”

Yes, this policy change will do that. For women athletes who have spent decades fighting for equal opportunity under Title IX and the Olympic Charter, this is not exclusion. It is justice. For men, this is a sigh of relief for their wives and daughters and also for men.

The science, after all, has never been in doubt. Males who experience puberty develop irreversible physical advantages: greater muscle mass, higher bone density, larger hearts and lungs, and more. Even after testosterone suppression, studies consistently show men still have significant advantages in strength, speed, and power. These are not opinions or “biases”—they are measurable, sex-based realities that no amount of goodwill or hormone therapy can erase.

When biological males enter women’s categories, female athletes lose podiums, scholarships, records, and sometimes physical safety. In combat sports, the risk of serious injury rises dramatically. In swimming, track, weightlifting, and cycling, the displacement is already documented.

The policy is pro-woman and pro-men, as it finally prioritizes the sex-based category that exists for the sake of both sexes.

Interestingly, transgender athletes themselves have voiced a range of opinions on this issue. Caitlyn Jenner, a famous male athlete who, in 1976, won gold as a man in Olympic decathlon and who later became transgender, has been unequivocal in defense of women’s sports. “Biological boys should not be playing in women’s sports,” said Jenner. “It just isn’t fair. And we have to protect girls’ sports.”

Transgender tennis player Renee Richards, who competed in women’s events in the 1970s after transitioning, reached a similar conclusion decades later. In February 2025 Richards declared: “I believe that having gone through male puberty disqualifies transgender women from the female category in sports.”

By contrast, swimmer Lia Thomas—whose 2022 NCAA title in the women’s 500-yard freestyle became a flashpoint—as he is a man has defended taking women’s trophies from women. “Trans women competing in women’s sports does not threaten women’s sports as a whole,” said Thomas. Uh, what?

Transgender athletes remain free to compete in open or male categories. Let’s wish them luck.