Washington (AFP) – American transgender women will no longer be able to compete in women's events at the Olympics and Paralympics after a recent policy change by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC).
A new note on the USOPC website regarding the participation of transgender athletes in sports says: "As of July 21, 2025, please refer to the USOPC athlete safety policy."
The policy update, following US President Donald Trump's "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order, was added to the USOPC Athlete Safety Policy on its website as a new subsection entitled "Additional Requirements."
"The USOPC is committed to protecting opportunities for athletes participating in sport," the addition reads.
"The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities... to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 (Trump's order) and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act."
The Stevens Act, adopted in 1988, provides a means of handling eligibility disputes for Olympic sports and other amateur events.
A memo to Team USA from USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland and president Gene Sykes on Tuesday obtained by ABC News and ESPN made reference to Trump's February executive order, saying: "As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations."
Trump's executive order threatens to remove federal funds from any school or institution allowing transgender girls to play on girls' teams, claiming that would violate Title IX rules giving US women equal sport opportunities.
The order requires immediate enforcement against institutions that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms.
"Our revised policy emphasizes the importance of ensuring fair and safe competition environments for women," ESPN quoted the USOPC letter to governing bodies as saying.
"All National Governing Bodies are required to update their applicable policies in alignment."
ESPN also said the officials noted the USOPC "has engaged in a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials" in the wake of Trump's executive order.
The move comes as Los Angeles awaits a host role for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) also altered its policy for transgender athlete participation to limit women's sports competitors to athletes assigned female at birth after Trump's executive order.
Part 1: Ima preface this by saying what anyone does with their life and their individual pursuit of happiness is their fuckin right and I will never stop fighting for your ability to do so... now the dreaded "with that being said..."
So I'm not going to spend a ton of time going through every story and source because there is so much toxic shit sources around this topic so I am going to keep the list simple and only guna list widely known sources of stories about athletes winning for Olympic sports. The list itself is pulled from a shitty source so fuck citing that source, I will only provide the sources for the articles each story was pulled from. I took tons of time to get the links formatted and checking the stories and sources so if the vernacular used in the actual list is not universally appropriate, please just disregard and read the story being linked. The linked sources for each story, I think are all applauding the trans athlete. *not Olympic athletes, just sports that are in the Olympics as far as I know.
Women’s basketball – A 50-year-old, 6-foot-6-inch man, who played on a college men’s team 30 years prior, played on a women’s junior college basketball team.
Women’s handball – A male athlete, who formerly played on an NCAA Division III women’s soccer team, now plays for Team USA Women’s Beach Handball.
Women’s bodybuilding – A male who had competed in men’s bodybuilding in the past started competing as a woman.
Women’s cricket – A male athlete competed on a women’s cricket team in England, and another male athlete previously did so in Australia.
Women’s cross country – A male runner competed on an NCAA Division I women’s cross country team and was named the conference’s “Women’s Athlete of the Week.” Running seems to be a talent where the gap between men and women is wider, even though I thought it was one of the sports where women had faster world record times than men but like I said not trying to spend tons of time researching cases because there are tooo many toxic as fuck sources for every good source. Including the story about the transgender runner who broke two women’s track and field records for New York college
Women’s cycling – A male athlete won gold in the women’s 200-meter sprint in both the 2018 and 2019 Masters Track Cycling World Championships. Another male cyclist first competed in the women’s category in 2017.
Women’s mountain biking – A male athlete who previously competed in the men’s open division won back-to-back national championships in the women’s elite division in 2018 and 2019.
Women’s power lifting – A male power-lifter competed as a female and broke several records before being disqualified.
Women’s skateboarding – A 29-year-old male athlete competed in a women’s street skateboarding competition in New York City and beat out a 13-year-old girl for first place.
Women’s surfing – A male athlete who previously won a Western Australia state surfing championship in the men’s division competed in the women’s division in 2022 and won two women’s state championships.
Women’s swimming – A male swimmer who competed on the men’s team for three years began competing on the women’s team and won a 2022 NCAA Championship in the 500-yard freestyle event. Another male swimmer competed on the men’s team for three years before competing on the women’s team and recording the fastest women’s times in three events at the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference Championships as an exhibition swimmer.
Women’s track and field – Two male athletes dominated girls’ high school competitions in Connecticut. A male athlete won first place in the women’s mile race at an NCAA Division I conference championship. And another male college athlete won the 400-meter hurdles at the NCAA Division II women’s national championships. As well as the story of Ada Gallagher who set new records at Track Championship. This doesn't even seem possible: trans high school track star sparks fury after winning girls’ triple jump by staggering 8 feet](https://www.aol.com/trans-high-school-track-star-174914172.html)
UN Report on balance of medals won by females vs females *If I read this correctly, it is fucking terrifying the UN could be so dysfunctional that a report done by a single person and no peer reviews or fact checking is able to get this much attention much-less even be released to the media by the UN.