International Olympic Committee develops new guidelines for transgender and intersex athletes

The International Olympic Committee issued new guidance Tuesday that backs off of previous policies affecting transgender and intersex athletes. While the new framework focuses on inclusion, it is non-binding, and the IOC said it will leave it to individual sport federations to make and enforce their own eligibility requirements.

Under the new framework, the IOC prompts international federations to shift towards impartial evidence-based research when determining an athlete's eligibility status for competition. Under the past framework that all federations had adopted, all athletes across all sports had to meet specific criteria, such as women being required to only having a certain amount of testosterone in their bodies.

The IOC now recommends that evidence needed to restrict an athlete from competition must demonstrate "a consistent, unfair, disproportionate competitive advantage" that poses an unpreventable risk for the specific sport regulated and it must be based largely on data.