Tobi Amusan Among Female Athletes to Undergo Gender Test Ahead of 2025 World Championships
Nigerian sprint sensation and world record holder Tobi Amusan is among several female athletes expected to undergo a mandatory gender verification test ahead of the 2025 World Athletics Championships scheduled to be held in Tokyo.
This development follows new eligibility rules introduced by World Athletics requiring all athletes competing in the women’s category to complete a one-time genetic sex verification test beginning September 1, 2025. The test will screen for the presence of the SRY gene, a genetic marker typically found on the Y chromosome, and will be conducted using either a cheek swab or a blood sample.
World Athletics President, Sebastian Coe, defended the decision during a media briefing, describing it as a step to “preserve the fairness and integrity of women’s sports.”
He stated that at the elite level, athletes must be biologically female to compete in the female category. “It was always very clear to me and the World Athletics Council that gender cannot trump biology,” Coe emphasized.
The new policy is backed by World Athletics’ Gender Diverse Athlete Working Group and merges previously separate guidelines for transgender athletes and those with Differences of Sex Development (DSD) into a unified regulatory standard.
Tobi Amusan, the reigning 100m hurdles world record holder and 2022 world champion, is set to participate in the Nigerian Championships in Lagos from August 1 to 3. She aims to defend her national title as she continues her preparations for the World Championships set to begin on September 13 in Tokyo.
Although the regulations will not come into force until late 2025, the inclusion of high-profile names like Amusan has ignited public conversations around athlete privacy, dignity, and the broader implications of such testing on women in sport.
World Athletics has expressed gratitude to national federations for their anticipated cooperation and emphasized the importance of full compliance to uphold the credibility and fairness of global female athletics.
