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The Brief Transgender women have been banned from competing in Olympic and Paralympic events. The new policy was announced quietly on Monday. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee said it had an “obligation to comply” with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has effectively banned transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

The committee told the federations overseeing swimming, athletics and other sports it has an “obligation to comply” with an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.

The change, announced Monday with a quiet change on the USOPC’s website and confirmed in a letter sent to national governing bodies, follows a similar step taken by the NCAA earlier this year.

New policy

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The USOPC’s transgender eligibility policy page now includes a note that reads, “As of July 21, 2025, please refer to the USOPC athlete safety policy.”

That policy does not lay out any clear guidelines regarding trans inclusion in women’s sports. However, it does include one paragraph that directly cites Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.

USA Fencing was one of the first US Olympic organizations to publicly announce it has updated its gender eligibility policy after months of criticism for allowing biological males to compete in the women’s category.

The organization appeared to update its policy last week to include the following requirements for competing in domestic women’s competitions: “Athletes who are of the female sex, provided all other entry criteria have been met.”

The new policy will go into effect beginning next month.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee is falling in line with an executive order from President Donald Trump banning transgender women from women’s sports.

The committee quietly updated its eligibility rules Monday, adding a paragraph to its 27-page “Athlete Safety Policy” posted to its website that includes language that implies it bars transgender women from competing in women’s divisions.

Trump signed the “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” executive order — also known as Executive Order 14201 — in February.

The LA2028 official Olympic flag at Los Angeles City Hall on September 23, 2024. Getty Images

“The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC, IPC, NGBs, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act,” the added language in the document stated.

It’s not clearly stated how the policy will be enforced, and it is unclear whether any American Olympians will be banned from the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics taking place in Los Angeles.

A USOPC spokesperson told the New York Times that the committee had been having “a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials” following the president’s executive order.

The committee said it would work with national governing bodies to implement the new policy.

“As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” the USOPC statement read.

President Donald Trump reacts after the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Final match between Chelsea FC and Paris Saint-Germain. FIFA via Getty Images

No openly transgender woman has won an Olympic medal.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s former policy based its rulings on “real data and science-based evidence rather than ideology,” and that it would be “making science-based decisions, sport by sport and discipline by discipline, within both the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

The International Olympic Committee has struggled to address the issue of transgender athletes in sports.

USA Fencing updated its policy last week in response to criticism that it had been facing for allowing biological males to compete in the women’s category.

Part of the requirements to compete in a domestic women’s competition include the language, “Athletes who are of the female sex, provided all other entry criteria have been met.”

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee quietly changed its policies on Monday to comply with President Donald Trump’s February executive order preventing transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports unless assigned female at birth.

In an update to its Athlete Safety Policy, the USOPC added a paragraph saying that it will “continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC (International Olympic Committee), IPC (International Paralympic Committee), NGBs (National Governing Bodies), to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201.”

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In a letter from the USOPC to its stakeholders obtained by The Athletic on Tuesday, USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and USOPC President Gene Sykes said that all national governing bodies “are required to update their applicable policies in alignment.”

“The USOPC has engaged in a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials,” Hirshland and Sykes wrote in the letter. “As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations.”

The new policy is a reversal for the USOPC. In April, Hirshland told The Guardian that the USOPC did not plan to decide eligibility criteria for transgender athletes ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and that the responsibility fell to individual governing bodies instead.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate,” Hirshland said in The Guardian. “It’s not our role to take on that position.”

In the past, international governing bodies have taken a variety of approaches to trans athlete eligibility. Many sports have specific requirements around when athletes must have transitioned and for how long, and certain testosterone level requirements in order to compete.

Advocates against the participation of trans athletes in women’s and girls’ sports say that those athletes have an unfair biological advantage, while LGBTQ+ advocates say efforts like those by the Trump Administration are part of a larger push to curtail transgender rights and can be hateful. Studies of trans athletes’ athletic abilities — of which there are few — find mixed results, depending on an athlete’s stage and age of transition.

The USOPC is the latest group to comply with orders by the Trump Administration targeting transgender athletes — a major part of Trump’s campaign for president in 2024 and the Republican platform. On July 1, the University of Pennsylvania banned transgender athletes and revoked records belonging to Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer, after the Department of Education launched an investigation into the university. The federal government had threatened to cut federal funding or send the case to the Justice Department before Penn complied.

In February, one day after Trump’s executive order, the NCAA updated its policies to exclude transgender women from participating in women’s sports. The order called on rescinding federal funds from programs that “deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.”

Since then, the Department of Education has targeted other bodies, including the state of California, saying that allowing transgender women and girls to compete violates Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education.

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Many of the Trump Administration’s orders around transgender athletes have faced legal challenges, as have state-specific bans on transgender athletes. The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear two cases challenging bans at the state level in its upcoming term, which begins in October.

(Top photo of the Olympics logo at the 2024 Paris Games: Grace Hollars / USA Today Sports via Imagn Images)

Without much fanfare, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee appears to have changed its policy on transgender athletes, now complying with President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep men out of women’s sports. On its official website, the U.S.O.P.C. has a page titled “Transgender athlete participation in sport” and just below that title it says, “We are invested in becoming a DE&I leader in sport by providing access and opportunity for all.”

But there’s one small change on the page. Now, there’s a note that reads, “As of July 21, 2025, please refer to the USOPC athlete safety policy ” with a link to the new policy. According to that document, the organization issued these changes last month. The U.S.O.P.C. has always had an athlete safety policy, so the majority of the 27-page document appears unchanged.

However, there is a small addendum to section three, which is titled, “Jurisdiction.” Now, Article 3.3 (labeled “Additional Requirements”) states: “The USOPC is committed to protecting opportunities for athletes participating in sport. The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC, IPC, NGBs, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act, 36 U.S.C § 22501, et. seq.”

While they didn’t expressly state what Executive Order 14201 actually says, it’s Trump’s order titled “Keeping men out of women’s sports.” So, it seems that the USOPC has finally decided to comply with federal law and ban males from women’s sports, even though the addendum doesn’t explicitly say that.

There are still many other questions out there, though. How is the USOPC going to determine who is eligible to compete in women’s sports? As OutKick has reported, the NCAA has a ban on males competing in women’s sports, but the organization only requires a person to have a birth certificate stating that an athlete is female. Many states allow people to change their birth certificates to reflect their “gender identity” instead of their biological sex.

The only way to truly determine whether a person is male or female is with a cheek-swab test that only needs to be completed once in an athlete’s life. Sure, Democrats have fear-mongered about “invasive genital exams,” but that’s just a scare tactic to keep allowing males to compete in women’s sports.

RELATED: President Trump Announces He Won’t Allow Foreign Transgender Athletes To Enter U.S. For 2028 Olympics

How does the USOPC plan to implement this policy? It’s great that the USOPC finally came to its senses and adjusted its policy. But they need to explain why they made the change and how they plan to carry through. Based on the wording on the website, they seem to only be making the change to comply with federal law, while still wanting to allow males to compete in women’s sports.

According to the New York Times, the USOPC sent a statement that says, “As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations.” The USOPC oversees dozens of National Governing Bodies in sport, so it would appear that those organizations are going to have to fall in line as well. USA Fencing, which came under fire earlier this year for allowing a male to compete in women’s events, has already changed its policy to align with the USOPC.

Stay tuned, there’s a lot more to come in this story.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee quietly changed its policy this week to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order and ban men from competing against women.

The move marks another major win for conservatives and the Trump administration, who have fought to protect women’s sports. The committee, which posted an update to its Athlete Safety Policy on Monday, stated that it would “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 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act,” NBC News reported.

Executive Order 14201 refers to Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” action that he signed on February 5. The U.S. Olympic Committee’s updated policy flew under the radar when the change was made on Monday since it does not mention the word “transgender” in any of its 27 pages. The committee confirmed that the men are now banned from competing against women, saying it held “a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials” after Trump signed the executive order, according to The New York Times.

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s decision doesn’t necessarily mean that other countries will prevent men from competing in women’s sports, but the committee said it would work with international groups, such as the International Olympic Committee, to focus on providing safe and fair environments for women. The next Summer Olympic Games will be held in the United States under Trump’s watch in 2028. The 2026 Winter Olympics will be hosted by Italy.

In the 2024 Summer Games, Imane Khelif of Algeria, a boxer who had failed gender tests, dominated the women’s welterweight division and won the gold medal. Khelif’s success in Paris drew outrage across the globe. In 2021, trans-identifying man Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand competed against women in weightlifting in the Tokyo Games, but Hubbard did not compete in Paris. Chelsea Wolfe, a man who identifies as a woman, was also at the Tokyo Olympics as a reserve cyclist for the U.S. women’s BMX Freestyle team.

Recent polling from NBC News showed that a vast majority (75%) of Americans do not want trans-identifying men competing against women in female sports. That included two out of three people in Gen Z, who want women’s sports to be protected from men.