LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Aiming to help sports write eligibility rules for transgender athletes, the IOC published advice Tuesday shifting the focus from individual testosterone levels and calling for evidence to prove when a performance advantage existed. No athlete should be excluded from competing based on an “unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to their sex variations, physical appearance and/or transgender status,” the International Olympic Committee said. The six-page document follows years of consultation with medical and human rights experts and, since 2019, athletes directly affected to help draft guidelines promoting fairness and inclusion. It is published after the Tokyo Olympics where the first openly transgender athlete, weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, competed at the games and defending 800-meter champion Caster Semenya was among track athletes with intersex conditions and naturally high testosterone levels excluded from their events. The new guidance updates a 2015 review that set a limit on athletes’ permitted testosterone levels leading to treatments and procedures now described as “medically unnecessary.” “Eligibility criteria have sometimes resulted in severe harm,” the IOC acknowledged in a briefing on the advice that also cautions to avoid “invasive medical examinations.”