COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, USA (AP) — The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee has barred transgender women from competing in women’s sports and informed the national governing bodies that oversee swimming, track and field, and other sports that they are required to comply with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.
The change was disclosed on Monday with a discreet update to the USOPC website and confirmed in a letter sent to the national governing bodies. This marks the second ban on transgender athletes following the NCAA’s decision earlier this year.
The USOPC change is referenced indirectly as a detail under the “USOPC Athlete Safety Policy” and cites Trump’s executive order, “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports,” signed in February. That order, among other things, threatens to “withdraw all funding” from organizations that allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
U.S. Olympic officials told the national governing bodies that they must follow suit, adding that “the USOPC has engaged in a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials” since Trump signed the order.
“As a federal organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” wrote USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and president Gene Sykes in a letter. “Our policy emphasizes the importance of ensuring fair and safe competition environments for women. All national governing bodies should update their applicable policies accordingly.”
The nationwide debate over transgender girls in girls’ and women’s sports has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans frame the issue as a fight for athletic equity. More than two dozen states have enacted laws prohibiting transgender women and girls from certain sports. Some policies have been blocked in courts on grounds that they are discriminatory, cruel, and unnecessarily target a small niche of athletes.
The NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender student-athletes to limit female competition to athletes assigned female at birth. That change came a day after Trump signed the executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
Female eligibility is a key issue for the International Olympic Committee under its new president, Kirsty Coventry. The IOC has allowed individual sport federations to set their own rules at the Olympic Games, and some have already taken steps on the matter.
The federations of swimming, cycling, and track have approved tighter rules for transgender athletes, prohibiting participation in women’s events by anyone who has undergone male puberty. Soccer is reviewing its eligibility rules for women and could set testosterone limits.
Trump has said he wants the IOC to change everything “related to this absolutely ridiculous topic.” Los Angeles will host the Summer Games in 2028.
