Swedish skier Elis Lundholm is set to make history as the first openly transgender athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics, marking a significant moment in Olympic history, Fox News reports.
The Swedish national ski team announced last month that Lundholm, who was born female and identifies as male, will participate in the women’s freestyle skiing division under the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) current eligibility guidelines.
Lundholm will also be the only openly transgender athlete competing at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games. His participation falls under the IOC’s 2021 “Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations,” a set of recommendations designed to help sports federations establish fair policies for athlete eligibility.
The 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.”
Under the current system, transgender athletes may compete once cleared by their sport’s governing body. However, the IOC has been reevaluating its policies amid debate over fairness and eligibility. Reports in November indicated that the organization was considering stricter criteria that could exclude biological male athletes from women’s events. These reports followed a presentation by Dr. Jane Thornton, the IOC’s medical and scientific director, who cited evidence of persistent physiological advantages in males even after long-term hormone therapy.
According to Fox News, gender eligibility rules have drawn increasing scrutiny since the 2024 Paris Olympics, when Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting — both of whom had previously failed gender tests — won gold medals in women’s boxing divisions, prompting widespread debate. Khelif has maintained that she is female, while Lin has not addressed the controversy publicly.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) also updated its own transgender participation policies in July 2025 to align with President Donald Trump’s executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The United States is scheduled to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.