Swedish skier Elis Lundholm will make history as the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics.
The Swedish ski team announced last month that Lundholm, a biological female who identifies as a man, is competing in the women’s freestyle skiing division under current International Olympic Committee (IOC) guidelines.
Lundholm is also the only openly transgender athlete competing in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
The Swedish skier’s inclusion follows the IOC’s 2021 “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations.” The framework includes a 10-principle approach in recommendations for each sport to consider for eligibility requirements.
“This Framework recognizes both the need to ensure that everyone, irrespective of their gender identity or sex variations, can practice sport in a safe, harassment-free environment that recognizes and respects their needs and identities, and the interest of everyone — particularly athletes at elite level — to participate in fair competitions where no participant has an unfair and disproportionate advantage over the rest,” the document states.
Under the current framework, transgender athletes can compete in the Olympics after being cleared by their respective sports federations.
In November, reports circulated that the IOC was considering broader transgender eligibility standards that could bar biological male athletes from competing in women’s sports. The claims came after a presentation from Dr. Jane Thornton, the IOC’s medical and scientific director, which showed physical advantages in males even after extensive testosterone treatments.
However, as of Thursday, a new policy has yet to be officially announced.
Fox News Digital reached out to the IOC for comment.
Gender guidelines for the Olympics faced scrutiny during the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting, who previously failed gender tests, won gold medals in their respective boxing weight classes in the women’s division despite major uproar. Khelif has insisted that they were female. Lin has not commented on the controversy since the Olympics ended.
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Though the IOC has yet to announce a formal policy, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) updated its policies in July to coincide with President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.
The U.S. will host the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
