World Athletics has announced a number of changes to various rules and regulations ahead of the 2025 World Athletics Championships. In this article, we’ll explore some of the most monumental of them and discuss how they impact current and future competitors.

About the 2025 World Athletics Championships

Before we dive into specific changes in the rules and regulations, let’s take a quick look at the tournament itself. The 2025 World Athletics Championships are set to take place in Tokyo from the 13th to 21st September. A series of indoor and outdoor athletics finals will be held over the eight-day competition, with an emphasis on field and track athletics such as race walking, marathon running and cross-country running, among others.

Road events are currently slated for the morning roster, while all other finals will take place in the evening. Note that morning sessions are only held on weekends. During the week, only evening sessions will be held. The events get started with a 35km race walk and end with nine track finals on the last day.

Note that the qualifying window has passed for all events included in the championship, so there shouldn’t be any surprises moving forward. Bet slips at your preferred UK sportsbook should also be finalised and posted. Now is a good time to pick your favourite participants, place your bets, and get ready for the show! With that said, let’s go over some of the monumental changes that World Athletics is making for this year’s Championships.

Gene testing for female athletes

By far the biggest change for World Athletics athletes at the 2025 Championships is the new gene testing requirement. All female athletes in world ranking events are required to complete a one-time gene test in order to compete. Athletes who do not pass the testing will not be qualified and allowed to take part in the competition.

Why is the testing necessary?

The new gene testing requirement has been implemented as a result of recent controversies in other athletics competitions regarding male-born competitors competing in the female category. Research has shown that male-born competitors sometimes have biological advantages over female-born athletes. World Athletics testing is designed to detect the ‘sex-determining region Y gene’, more commonly known as the SRY gene, in competitors. The SRY gene is part of the ‘Y’, or male, chromosome and is directly tied to increased testosterone and, potentially, increased muscle mass and strength compared to competitors without it.

Increasing numbers of male-to-female-transitioning athletes have propelled this topic to the forefront of international athletics discourse.

What does this testing mean for athletes?

Athletes who test positive for the gene will not be permitted to compete in the ‘female’ category. This might seem straightforward on the surface, but the topic is much less simple in practice. Not all female athletes presenting with the SRY gene were assigned male at birth and transitioned. Some of them were assigned female at birth but have ‘differences in sex development’ (DSD) that have led to an increase in testosterone. Athletes might not even be aware that they have elevated levels and might not present with external male genitalia.

While World Athletics has noted that it is allowing a “very small number” of DSD athletes to take part in the Championships under current regulations, questions have been raised about the future of DSD athletes in the competition moving forward.

Other changes

Among the flurry of additional changes that have been announced for the 2025 Championships, one has flown under the radar. World Athletics recently sent out a request for proposal (RFP) for shoe manufacturers. The organisation is asking for extensive testing and inspection to be completed via a dedicated shoe app before it will endorse the shoe and allow competitors to wear them in official
events. This could lead to either an influx or a complete stalemate of approved shoes, requiring athletes to purchase new, potentially costly, options.

What does all of this mean for the World Athletics Championships moving forward? While the shoe issue doesn’t necessarily indicate a profound turning point, it does show the potential for more rigorous attire and equipment standards in the future. The real point of contention in this year’s rules and regulations revisions, of course, is the newly implemented gene testing requirement. While the true impact of the regulation remains to be seen, it will undoubtedly have an inescapable effect on the future of athletes with DSD.