Revealed: How Donald Trump spurred stunning call for trans athletes to be BANNED from representing Australia at the Olympics

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Senator Claire Chandler has demanded that the Australian Olympic Committee ban trans athletes from competing in the Games after America passed a similar rule on Wednesday.
'The Australian Olympic Committee should be doing what all sporting organisations around the world are doing and recognising that female athletes want to have their sporting categories protected,' Wheeler said on Thursday.
'I'm very glad to see sporting organisations finally recognising the need to protect female-only sport, but frankly speaking, it's taken far too long to get to this point.
'We know that World Athletics, World Swimming, World Rugby, all these peak international sporting organisations over the last five years have realised that women's sport needs protecting.
'It is well past time that Australian sporting organisations start doing exactly the same thing.'
Chandler's stance hasn't changed since she introduced the Save Women's Sport private member's bill to parliament in 2022.
She did so in the hope that it would prevent sporting clubs and organisations from having legal action taken against them for banning trans athletes from competing in single-sex sports for women and girls.
Chandler's latest statement was prompted by the seismic ruling against trans athletes that was reported in America on Wednesday.
The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has complied with Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender athletes from women's sports, according to NBC News.
The report states that the committee updated its policies to prevent trans women from competing against biological females while representing the USA at the Olympics and Paralympics.
It was also reported that national governing bodies of sports federations in the US - which oversee sporting events for all ages - must now follow the Olympic and Paralympic Committee's lead, according to several chief executives of sports within the Olympic movement.
'My Save Women's Sports bill is just as relevant now as it was three or four years ago, when I first introduced it to the parliament, and it's ridiculous that women and girls in Australia don't have a legal right to their own sport,' Chandler said.
Her stance has come in for criticism from Equality Australia CEO Anna Brown, who has backed the Australian Olympic Committee's decision to leave policies on trans athlete up to individual sports.
'We hope they continue to prioritise inclusion and only restrict participation where there is a clear risk to safety or fairness,' Brown told Sky News.
'Sporting organisations across Australia have worked hard to include trans women and to ensure everyone is treated with dignity and can participate safely and fairly.
'As recently as 2023, after extensive consultation and research, the Australian Institute of Sport found there was no case for a blanket ban on trans athletes in any sport, even at the elite level.'
Trans athletes became a huge issue at the 2024 Paris Olympics when boxers Lin Yu-ting and Imane Khelif were wrongly labelled as transgender after they were accused of failing gender eligibility tests that saw them disqualified from the 2023 World Championships.
New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard became the first openly trangender woman to compete at the Olympics when she was an entrant in weightlifting at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
Her qualification for the Games sparked calls for the International Olympic Committee to change its rules.
And last year, Italian sprinter Valentina Petrillo became the first transgender Paralympian when she competed in the Paris Games after winning bronze at the World Para Athletics Championships in 2023.
Senator Chandler's 2022 private member's bill was also slammed when it was announced.
Former Tasmanian anti-discrimination commissioner Robin Banks branded it 'a legislative solution to a non-existent problem' and argued that 'discrimination laws should be about preventing discrimination, not promoting it'.
The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) guidelines state that it is important for all Australians to have the chance to compete in sport.
'All Australians should have the opportunity to be involved in sport and physical activity, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, ability, cultural background or ethnicity,' the ASC writes.
'It is important that sporting bodies, from local clubs through to national sporting organisations, reflect the diversity in the communities they are a part of, and that together, we ensure every person is treated with respect and dignity and protected from discrimination.'