Sex swap ban for athletes

Athletes are to be excluded from new laws which will allow transsexuals to be given new birth certificates after an intervent ion by Olympics bosses.

A Bill going through Parliament will let sufferers from "gender dysporia" change sex in the eyes of the law.

But it would also have let male athletes compete freely in women's events, a source of great concern for the International Olympic Committee.

Now the Bill is to be amended so UK sporting bodies can decide case-by-case whether transsexuals should be allowed to compete.

Constitutional affairs minister Lord Filkin said sporting bodies "would be entitled to exclude a male-tofemale transsexual person if competitive parity was at stake".