The World Athletics Council has barred transgender women from competing in elite female competitions if they have gone through male puberty, ESPN reported.
Organization president Sebastian Coe said at a press conference that the decision was based "on the overarching need to protect the female category." He added that World Athletics would form a task force to study transgender inclusion that would be headed by a transgender athlete.
The council also voted to tighten restrictions on athletes with differences in sex development, affecting athletes such as two-time Olympic 800-meter champion Caster Semenya, who's from South Africa; and Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba, who finished runner-up to Semenya in the 800 at the 2016 Olympics.
In addition, the council voted to end its eight-year doping ban for the Russian Athletics Federation. However, the country's athletes, as well as those of Belarus, will remain excluded from international competition because of an ongoing separate ban over the invasion of Ukraine.