COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (AP) — The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee effectively bans transgender women from competing in women’s sports and says it has a “obligation” to a federation that oversees swimming, track and field and other sports, with an “obligation” to comply with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.
The new policy was announced on the USOPC website on Monday with quiet changes, confirmed in a letter sent to the body governing national sports, followed by a similar step taken by the NCAA earlier this year.
The USOPC change has been diagonally noted as detail under the “USOPC Athlete Safety Policy,” referring to Trump’s executive order, “Stops men from women’s sports,” signed in February. The order threatens to “retract all funds” from organizations that allow trans athletes to participate in women’s sports, among other things.
US Olympic officials added that since Trump signed the order, “USOPC has been engaged in a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials,” and that they need to follow the lawsuit.
“As a federal authorized body, we have an obligation to follow the expectations of the federal government,” USOPC CEOs Sarah Heeschland and President Jean Sykes wrote in a letter. “Our revised policies underscore the importance of ensuring a fair and safe competitive environment for women. All national governing bodies are necessary to coordinate applicable policies.”
The National Center for Women’s Law has issued a statement denounced the move.
“By contributing to political demands, USOPC is at the expense of the needs and safety of its athletes,” said Fatima Gos Graves, president and CEO of the organization.
The USOPC oversees around 50 national governing bodies, most of which play a role from grassroots to elite levels of sports. This increases the likelihood that rules will need to be changed at local sports clubs to maintain NGBS membership.
Some of these organizations (e.g., US track and field) have long followed guidelines set by their own World Federations. Athletics around the world are considering changes to policies that are largely in line with Trump’s order.
A US swimming spokesman said the federal government is aware of changes in the USOPC and is in consultation with the committee to know what changes need to be made. USA Fencing will change its policy effective August 1st to allow only “athletes who are female sex” in women’s competition, and will be able to hold male events to “all athletes who do not qualify for the female category, including transgender women, transgender men, non-binary, intersex athletes, and cisgender male athletes.”
As Republicans portray the issue as a fight for campaign equity, the national battle with transgender girls over girls and women’s sports teams is unfolding at both the state and federal levels. There are more than 20 states in which more than 20 people have enacted laws prohibiting transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Several policies have been blocked in court after critics challenged the policy as discriminatory, cruel and unnecessarily targeting small niches of athletes.
The NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes to limit competition in women’s sports to athletes who assigned women at birth. The change came the day after Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning trans athletes from girls and women’s sports.
Eligibility for women is a key issue for the International Olympic Committee under Kirsty Coventry, the new president who has shown efforts to “protect women’s categories.” The IOC allows individual sports federations to set their own rules at the Olympics, with some already taking steps on this topic.
Thorough rules for transgender athletes – Passed for swimming, cycling and track and field, except for events for women who have experienced male adolescence. Soccer is considering eligibility rules for women and may place testosterone restrictions.
Trump says the IOC wants “to change everything that relates to this absolutely ridiculous subject. Los Angeles will be holding a summer game in 2028.
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