Officials at the just-ended World Athletics Championships in Tokyo revealed that as many as 60 athletes who have been in the finals of women’s elite track and field events since 2000 would have failed its newly adopted SRY gene sex test.

The claims were made during a presentation by the head of health and sciences for World Athletics, Dr. Stéphane Bermon, who said among data collected between 2000 and 2023, there had been 135 event finalists with “difference in sexual development” (DSD) as defined by the international governing body for track and field.

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The number accounts for 50 to 60 athletes with DSD in multiple events.

These athletes were “over-represented” in major finals, which “compromises the integrity of female competitions,” Bermon alleged.

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World Athletics introduced mandatory sex earlier this year, compelling female athletes to undergo the SRY gene test, which the governing body claims is a “reliable proxy for determining biological sex.”

That assertion has been debated since the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, when SRY gene testing was abandoned by the International Olympic Committee as inconclusive.

World Athletics reintroduced the controversial test over the summer, calling it an effort to protect and promote “the integrity of women’s sport.”

“It is really important in a sport that is permanently trying to attract more women, that they enter believing there is no biological glass ceiling,” said World Athletics president Sebastian Coe. “The test to confirm biological sex is a very important step in ensuring this is the case.”

“We are saying, at elite level, for you to compete in the female category, you have to be biologically female,” he added. “It was always very clear to me and the World Athletics council that gender cannot trump biology.”

After naming himself head of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics this summer, Donald Trump called for a return of sex testing to the games.

“The United States will not let men steal trophies from women at the 2028 Olympics,” Trump asserted.

Use of SRY gene testing was abandoned by the International Olympic Committee, partly at the urging of Professor Andrew Sinclair, who discovered the SRY gene in 1990.

Of World Athletics’ claim that SRY testing is a “reliable proxy” for determining biological sex, Sinclair said, “Science does not support this overly simplistic assertion.”

“Biological sex is much more complex, with chromosomal, gonadal (testis/ovary), hormonal and secondary sex characteristics all playing a role. Using SRY to establish biological sex is wrong because all it tells you is whether or not the gene is present.”

“It does not tell you how SRY is functioning, whether a testis has formed, whether testosterone is produced and, if so, whether it can be used by the body.”

SRY tests were “sensitive,” Sinclair said, so much so that a male lab technician could “inadvertently contaminate it with a single skin cell,” resulting in a potentially career-ending false positive for an athlete.

“No guidance is given on how to conduct the test to reduce the risk of false results. Nor does World Athletics recognize the impacts a positive test result would have on a person, which can be more profound than exclusion from sport alone.”

Given the previous history of SRY testing in athletics, it is “very surprising that, 25 years later, there is a misguided effort to bring this back,” Sinclair said.

“Given all the problems outlined, the SRY gene should not be used to exclude women athletes from competition.”

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