Transgender ban: New Zealand, Australia say Olympic gender rules bring ‘clarity’

Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard represented New Zealand at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Photo / John Cowpland / www.photosport.nz

New Zealand’s Olympic Committee said Friday that an IOC ruling only “biological females” will be allowed to compete in women’s events would bring greater “clarity” and “fairness” to future Games.

New Zealand famously fielded transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 in a controversial first.

Transgender women will in future be prevented from taking part, as will athletes with differences in sexual development.

NZOC chief executive Nicki Nicol said the organisation recognised the “extensive consultation and expert input that has informed this policy”, particularly from athletes.

She said it would bring “greater clarity, consistency and fairness to eligibility for the female category at the Olympic level”.

“This is a complex and sensitive area that directly affects people, not just policy,” she said.

The IOC changes will mean testing for gender to determine eligibility to take part in women’s events from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics onwards.

The IOC is abandoning rules introduced in 2021 that allowed individual federations to decide their own policy and is instead implementing a rule across all Olympic sports.

Hubbard, who failed in all of her lifting attempts in Tokyo, said after competing in 2021 that she was aware of the controversy surrounding her participation.

Friday’s NZOC comments did not refer to Hubbard, who has kept a low profile since her Games appearance.

The New Zealand Government has ordered a rethink of transgender sporting participation in the past year, advising governing body Sport NZ in July 2025 to stop all work on its inclusive transgender principles for community sport.

Also reacting to Thursday’s IOC announcement, which signalled a major shift of policy, Australian Olympic Committee president Ian Chesterman said the IOC had comprehensively investigated what he called a “complex issue”.

“Without doubt this is a challenging and complex subject and at the AOC we approach it with empathy and understanding.

“This decision provides clarity for elite female athletes who compete at the highest level and demonstrates a commitment to fairness, safety and integrity in Olympic competition, all of which are fundamental principles of the Olympic Movement.

“As the IOC has stated, at the highest level of sport the smallest margins can determine outcomes, and clarity around eligibility is critical for female athletes to continue to compete on a level playing field.”

– AFP