World Athletics FAIL

In 1990, Australian geneticist Andrew Sinclair and his team identified the SRY gene, a DNA segment typically found on the Y chromosome that initiates male development during gestation. While this discovery was groundbreaking at the time, it’s now being misused and we’re grateful that Sinclair is speaking up against this.

World Athletics has introduced a new policy mandating genetic testing for all women athletes competing at elite levels. This initiative seeks to detect the SRY gene via a simple blood test or cheek swab. Yet the implications of this policy are anything but simple. The requirement is limited to women, effectively exposing their most private medical information to sports authorities and opening the door to serious ethical, privacy and psychological consequences.

Sinclair explains in his piece for The Conversation that biology can’t be distilled into one gene or a single test. The presence of SRY might suggest a certain genetic pathway, but it tells us nothing definitive about how an individual’s body has developed or how hormones are processed. 

InterAction thanks Professor Andrew Sinclair for speaking up for science and fairness in World Athletics.

The potential fallout is immense. Some athletes may discover, for the first time, that they have an intersex variation- something they’ve never been informed of or supported through. Dr Morgan Carpenter stresses that such revelations require support and genetic counselling- not rigid enforcement by sports authorities. “Women who discover that they have an SRY gene in the course of this testing are going to need a lot of support,” he said. “But they shouldn't have to do it in the first place.”

The policy seems to allow a narrow exception for athletes with complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), but bars most other intersex women unless they undergo hormone suppression, irrespective of the impact on their health. What’s most troubling is how these rules ignore the long-standing concerns of the intersex community. Genetic testing of this kind risks involuntary disclosure, discrimination, and medical coercion. No woman should be forced to alter her body or reveal deeply personal genetic information just to compete in her chosen sport. 

Sinclair previously succeeded in convincing the International Olympic Committee to abandon this kind of testing ahead of the 2000 Games. It was a victory for science and inclusion but today’s revival of the practice feels like a step backward. Athletic participation should be built on fairness, not fear. Policies rooted in outdated interpretations of biology undermine that goal. Science deserves nuance, and athletes deserve respect- including intersex athletes.

Read the article on The Conversation: World Athletics’ mandatory genetic test for women athletes is misguided. I should know – I discovered the relevant gene in 1990

Additional reading:

• Karkazis, Katrina, and Morgan Carpenter. 2018. ‘Impossible “Choices”: The Inherent Harms of Regulating Women’s Testosterone in Sport’.Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 15 (4): 579–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-018-9876-3
• Bowman-Smart, Hilary, Julian Savulescu, Michele O’Connell, and Andrew Sinclair. 2024. ‘World Athletics Regulations Unfairly Affect Female Athletes with Differences in Sex Development’. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport In press: 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00948705.2024.2316294
• Carpenter, Morgan. 2024. ‘Is It Ever OK to Reclassify Someone Out of Their Birth-Observed Sex Without Personal Consent? How Do We Manage Competing Methods of Classifying Sex?’ The American Journal of Bioethics 24 (11): 18–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2024.2399853
• InterAction for Health and Human Rights. 2025. Submission on Proposed Guidelines for Women with “DSDs” and Gender Diverse Women. https://interaction.org.au/41693/submission-world-athletics-2025/
• Australia and New Zealand Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes. 2025. Response to World Athletics Re Sex Differentiation. https://media.anzsped.org/2025/03/24155441/o_25_02-World-Athletics-response-re-Sex-differentiation.pdf