In this week’s episode, Fiona McAnena and Emma Hilton discuss the International Olympic Committee’s new policy on protecting the female category, released on 26th March. They talk about what’s in the policy, what it means for sport more broadly and how it’s been received.
Emma is Sex Matters’ interim chair and the co-author of the most-cited paper on sex differences and the impact of testosterone suppression in sport. She is also a published critic of the now-defunct 2021 IOC policy, and a leading academic voice in calls to reinstitute sex screening. She’s been consulted by several international and national sports federations, and has been an expert witness in court cases, including a US Supreme Court amicus brief on sex screening.
Background reading
Watch Emma Hilton’s 2019 talk for Fair Play For Women.
Listen to Fiona talking to Spiked about how the Olympics battered women’s sports.
Read Fiona’s 2023 article for Spiked on the trans colonisation of women’s sports.
Read Fiona’s 2025 article for The Critic on how women managed to get men out of Olympic female sport.
