First Federation to Implement Olympic Policy Despite Lack of Evidence and Need
(Amsterdam, August 13, 2026) – The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) should pause its implementation of mandatory sex testing and consult with impacted athletes and experts before it causes permanent harm and trauma, the Sport & Rights Alliance said today. The WTA has become the first international federation to adopt the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) discriminatory policy on the women’s category, which was created through a closed process and against the recommendations of affected athletes, legal and scientific experts, and civil society organizations.
“Sport is about belonging, and this policy does the opposite,” said Andrea Florence, Executive Director of the Sport & Rights Alliance. “The athletes we speak to on a daily basis want sports bodies to focus on the real issues of abuse, harassment and discrimination. Instead of removing barriers for women and girls to play tennis, this new policy adds to them. The WTA can claim it does not intend to cause harm, but good intentions will never erase the stigmatization and trauma that women and girls will suffer due to sex testing.”
The WTA’s hasty, top-down approach disregards the complex reality of human biology and subjects all women and girls who want to play tennis to medical and public scrutiny, and breaches of privacy. Anyone who returns a positive test for the SRY gene will then be subjected to more invasive tests and procedures which can cause long-term psychological and physical trauma and loss of career, livelihood, identity and community.
“The WTA has hurriedly cobbled together a policy that does not advance the rights of women and girls but instead undermines the safety and dignity of everyone on the tour,” said Lily Dong Li Rosengard, Advocacy Senior Specialist at ILGA World. “Trans and intersex athletes already face so many barriers and challenges both inside and outside of sport. Despite the fact that no out trans women are currently competing at the professional level, all women and girl tennis players will now have to ‘prove’ their gender just so the WTA can ensure they never play at all.”
The Sport & Rights Alliance is urging the WTA to immediately suspend the policy and align its regulations with international human rights standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the IOC’s previous, rights-based Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-discrimination, which recommended eligibility rules that are tailored to each sport and grounded in scientific research.
