Skiing's governing body approves gender eligibility testing policy

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GENEVA (AP) — Skiing’s governing body approved a gene testing policy for gender eligibility in women's events Wednesday, but delayed a decision on letting some Russian athletes try to qualify with neutral status for next year's Winter Olympics.

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said it will work with national team officials on implementing the policy, which follows the lead taken by track and field’s World Athletics.

“The eligibility conditions laid out in the policy are grounded on the presence or absence of the so-called SRY gene, the sex-determining gene present on humans’ Y chromosome,” FIS said in a statement.

It was not clear to what extent athletes with the SRY gene have previously competed in women’s events in FIS disciplines, which include Alpine and cross-country skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

Both FIS president Johan Eliasch and World Athletics leader Sebastian Coe campaigned as candidates in the International Olympic Committee election this year promising to protect the female category.

“This policy is the cornerstone of our commitment to protect women’s sport,” Eliasch said Wednesday in a FIS statement, “and we are convinced that there is only one fair and transparent way to do that: by relying on science and biological facts.”

The IOC now has its first female president, two-time Olympic champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who has overseen creating a working group of experts to look at gender issues in sports.

An issue for athletes in France and Norway, which are both strong in winter sports, is that both countries have national laws prohibiting gene testing for nonmedical reasons.

Ahead of the track and field world championships in Tokyo this month, French and Norwegian athletes were tested after arriving in Japan.

FIS did not publish a timetable for a testing program. The Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games open Feb. 6.

FIS barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022. The war began four days after the closing ceremony at the Beijing Winter Games, where Russian athletes won 32 medals, including five gold, and the Belarus team won two silvers.

The FIS ruling council on Wednesday discussed but did not reach a decision on extending the ban or approving a neutral status policy for individual athletes ahead of the next Olympics. The council next meets Oct. 21.

The IOC has barred Russia and Belarus from team sports at Summer Games and Winter Games. Governing bodies of Olympic sports were advised to look at giving some of the countries’ athletes neutral status — if they had not publicly supported the war, and were not linked to military and state security services.

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