Gender eligibility regulations in international federations after 2022: Accommodation, transformation, and exclusion

In 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) introduced the Framework on Fairness, Inclusion, and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations, inviting international federations (IFs) to develop their own sport-specific competition policies for trans and Differences in Sex Development athletes. This article analyses the adoption of its 10 principles across 10 IFs, assessing whether the policies support transformative approaches to gender diversity in competitive sports. The findings show that IFs largely continue to reinforce restrictive norms, emphasizing testosterone thresholds while neglecting broader inclusivity. The analysed regulations rely on contested science, impose medical surveillance, and discriminate against affected athletes. The study highlights how the 2021 IOC Framework, despite its progressive rhetoric, failed to provide substantive guidance, thereby enabling IFs to actively produce exclusion by unknowing: ignoring readily available knowledge about gender diversity in elite sport.