While the issue has seen widespread attention in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, EOK Secretary General Kristo Tohver said Estonia is unlikely to follow suit, at least in the near future.

The EOK has been approached on the matter only a couple of times in the past 18 months he has been in charge, Tohver said.

Tohver made his remarks at a time when transgender athletes competing in women's sports has come back in the spotlight, more specifically relating to competitors in the WNBA, the world's largest women's basketball league.

In any case, any national sports federation will first of all follow the rules on governing transgender athletes as set out by the organization's international governing body.

Still, some opposition has been seen to allowing transgender athletes taking part in events alongside competitors in the category of the gender they were assigned at birth and identify with – the issue in particular has attracted attention when it comes to transgender women taking part in women's sporting events.

Sports biologist Kristjan Port said differences between female and male physiology are not massively pronounced before sexual maturation. After puberty, however, there arise significant differences in men's muscle mass and muscle-fiber diameter, body size and proportions. These in turn require more powerful respiratory, cardiovascular and circulatory systems to function.

"Men have greater strength and are able to apply it more effectively, meaning they have greater power and endurance. This functional divergence is reflected in sporting results," Port said.

Some sports federations have previously suggested that beginning hormonal treatment before puberty can arrest a major divergence in physical development between the sexes, however, though questions then arise about the extent to which this can or should be done.

"The IOC removed the question of 'how much is too much' and boiled down the rule solely to the presence of the SRY gene region on the male Y chromosome," Port went on, noting the IOC's rules have undergone several changes.

Port conceded that no rule can encompass the full complexity of reality. "Rules are optimal for someone. Not everyone fits within them. The IOC is a media company, and in that business, audience size matters."

Only one transgender woman has competed at Olympic level in a women's event: New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard at the Tokyo Games in 2021. Hubbard, assigned male at birth, began living as a woman at 34 and met IOC and IWF requirements to compete. From the next Olympics onward, however, only athletes born female are expected to be eligible under new rules announced in March.

In July, WNBA player Sophie Cunningham, famed for the "pointing" meme, told ESPN that women's rights should be protected in sports. Her comments were supported by Vice President J.D. Vance but criticized as hateful by others.

Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have announced they are entering the WNBA draft for political reasons. Freedom, a Turkish-born player with 259 NBA games, has had his citizenship rescinded and is on a wanted list for criticizing President Erdoğan. White played three NBA games before entering politics and is now running for the US Senate.

It remains unclear whether transgender athletes born male will be accepted into the WNBA. The NBA and WNBA are privately owned and not under FIBA, so they can adopt different rules.

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