U.S. Olympics will ban men from competing in women’s competitions after Trump order

CNA Staff, Jul 23, 2025 / 12:44 pm

The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) will formally prohibit men from competing in women’s sports amid the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back transgender policies throughout the United States.

USOPC said in an email to Olympic groups and stakeholders on Tuesday that leaders had “engaged in a series of respectful and constructive conversations” with federal leaders after President Donald Trump’s February executive order that moved to “protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports.”

“Under the Trump administration we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes and we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls,” Trump said when signing the order. “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.”

“As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” USOPC said in its email this week.

The committee said it had updated its policies to ensure “fair and safe competition environments for women.”

All Olympic national governing bodies will be required to update their rules in line with the new guidance, the national committee said.

The decision drew criticism from advocates of letting men who identify as women compete in women’s sporting events. The National Women’s Law Center described the move as a “cruel effort” to block men from women’s competitions.

Trump had earlier vowed that his February executive order would block men’s participation in women’s Olympic sports in 2028, when the Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles.

“We’re just not going to let it happen,” the president said when signing the measure.

The Trump administration has taken an aggressive approach to rolling back years’ worth of transgender policies throughout the country. In May, for instance, the White House launched an inquiry into hospitals that have provided transgender drugs and performed transgender surgeries on minors.

The administration in April also directed the U.S. National Institutes of Health to begin a research initiative to study “regret” among individuals who undergo so-called gender transition treatments.

The U.S. bishops earlier this year praised Trump’s efforts to keep men out of women’s sports. Catholic leadership in recent years has grown increasingly critical of transgender ideology, with Pope Francis in 2023 describing transgenderism as “one of the most dangerous ideological colonizations” of the present day.

Republican officials have been similarly energized by the Trump administration’s moves on transgenderism. On Tuesday numerous attorneys general demanded that the National Collegiate Athletic Association “reinstate the records, titles, awards, and recognitions rightfully earned by top female athletes” that have been stripped by men allowed to compete in women’s leagues.

“These women champions earned those records. They trained, competed, and won, only to have their victories stolen by male athletes,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a press release.

“Biological reality matters,” the prosecutor said, describing men competing against women as “a grave injustice” that “undermines the integrity of women’s sports.”

The U.S. Supreme Court, meanwhile, said earlier this month that during its next term it will consider two cases addressing whether or not states can ban males from participating in female sports leagues.

Both cases arose from lawsuits brought by young men who identify as female and who sued Idaho and West Virginia over their respective bans on boys competing in girls’ sports.