On Monday, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee quietly decided to bend the knee to President Donald Trump and banned transgender women from competing in women’s Olympic sports.
According to the New York Times, a “USOPC Athlete Safety Policy” page on the committee’s website does not include the word transgender but states that the USOPC will “ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act.” The Times reports that this new policy means “the national governing bodies of sports federations in the United States — which oversee sporting events for all ages, from youth to masters’ competitions — now must follow the USOPC’s lead.”
Trump has issued a raft of executive orders targeting the transgender community under the guise of protecting women, though there’s no evidence that transgender girls and women — whether athletes or not — are a threat to their peers. The particular order referred to on the USOPC website allows federal agencies to rescind funds from organizations that do not abide by the Trump administration’s interpretation of Title IX, which defines sex as the gender a person was assigned at birth.
The Olympic committee isn’t the first institution to cave to Trump’s order. Earlier this month, the University of Pennsylvania announced it will block transgender athletes from women’s sports teams as part of an agreement made with the federal government. Within 24 hours of Trump’s issuing the order, the Department of Education announced it would open civil-rights investigations into UPenn, San José State University, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sports. The NCAA also changed its participation policy to allow only women assigned female at birth to compete — though Charlie Baker, the NCAA president, noted that fewer than ten people among the 500,000 college athletes belonging to the organization publicly identify as transgender.
It’s unclear what exactly the USOPC’s policy change means for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but it appears Trump is prepared to put up a fight. After signing the order, he warned the International Olympic Committee to “change everything to do with the Olympics and this absolutely ridiculous subject” and promised to deny visa applications for any transgender athletes attempting to enter the U.S. for the games. The Cut has reached out to the USOPC and will update this post if we hear back.
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