US Olympic policy change bans transgender women in women's events
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.
js/jgc
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's Polling Hits New Low, as He Loses Independent Support
President Donald Trump calls on a reporter during an Oval Office meeting at the White House on July 22, 2025. Credit - Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images President Donald Trump's approval rating slid further Thursday, hitting a new low during his second term of 37% among U.S. adults, according to Gallup, as he continues losing support from independent voters. Independents rated him most poorly on his handling of the budget, Ukraine and foreign trade. Trump's standing among partisans hasn't shifted. Gallup found that his support from Republicans has stayed steady at around 89% and his approval from Democrats remained in the single digits, falling slightly to 2% in July. Gallup's pollsters spoke to voters in the two weeks after Trump signed into law his signature spending bill—the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. That law included tax cuts, and increased funds for immigration enforcement, the military and U.S. fossil fuel production. It also included funding cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Among independents, Trump's lowest approvals came in for his handling of the federal budget, at 19%, and the war in Ukraine, at 24%. Twenty seven percent of independents approved of his handling of foreign trade and the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis. His handling of the economy found 29% approval among independents. Trump's overall approval among independent voters declined to 29% down from 46% when he took office six months ago. Trump's Gallup approval rating during his first term peaked at 49% in May 2020 and fell to its lowest level at 34% during his final weeks in office in January 2021. The new approval rating comes as Trump grapples with concerns from Republican supporters about his administration's refusal to release more files from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation. On Wednesday, three House Republicans on the House Oversight Committee broke with GOP leaders and agreed with Democrats to subpoena Justice Department records from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The committee also agreed to issue a subpoena for a deposition from Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted for her role in a sex trafficking conspiracy with Epstein, and requested testimony from high-profile figures including President Bill Clinton, former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller. Trump has tried to change the subject for days, but with little effect. On Tuesday in the Oval Office, he revived a long-time grievance against former President Barack Obama, saying, without evidence, that Obama committed treason for his handling of investigations into Russia's attempt to influence the 2016 election, which Trump won. On Sunday night, Trump launched a flurry of online posts on Truth Social calling for the Cleveland Guardians and Washington Commanders football teams to return to their earlier names, posted clips of people doing dangerous stunts, and shared a fake AI-generated video of Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's AI plan calls for massive data centers. Here's how it may affect energy in the US
Trump AI Energy Explainer President Donald Trump's plan to boost artificial intelligence and build data centers across the U.S. could speed up a building boom that was already expected to strain the nation's ability to power it. The White House released the 'AI Action Plan' Wednesday, vowing to expedite permitting for construction of energy-intensive data centers as it looks to make the country a leader in a business that tech companies and others are pouring billions of dollars into. The plan says to combat 'radical climate dogma,' a number of restrictions — including clean air and water laws — could be lifted, aligning with Trump's 'American energy dominance' agenda and his efforts to undercut clean energy. Here's what you need to know. What AI means for the environment Massive amounts of electricity are needed to support the complex servers, equipment and more for AI. Electricity demand from data centers worldwide is set to more than double by 2030, to slightly more than the entire electricity consumption of Japan today, the International Energy Agency said earlier this year. In many cases, that electricity may come from burning coal or natural gas. These fossil fuels emit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide and methane. This in turn is tied to extreme weather events that are becoming more severe, frequent and costly. The data centers used to fuel AI also need a tremendous amount of water to keep cool. That means they can strain water sources in areas that may have little to spare. What Big Tech is saying and doing about finding all that power Typically, tech giants, up-and-comers and other developers try to keep an existing power plant online to meet demand, experts say, and most existing power plants in the U.S. are still producing electricity using fossil fuels — most often natural gas. In certain areas of the U.S., a combination of renewables and energy storage in the form of batteries are coming online. But tapping into nuclear power is especially of interest as a way to reduce data center-induced emissions while still meeting demand and staying competitive. Amazon said last month it would spend $20 billion on data center sites in Pennsylvania, including one alongside a nuclear power plant. The investment allows Amazon to plug right into the plant, a scrutinized but faster approach for the company's development timeline. Meta recently signed a deal to secure nuclear power to meet its computing needs. Microsoft plans to buy energy from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, and Google previously signed a contract to purchase it from multiple small modular reactors in the works. What's at stake in the kind of energy that powers data centers Data centers are often built where electricity is cheapest, and often, that's not from renewables. And sometimes data centers are cited as a reason to extend the lives of traditional, fossil-fuel-burning power plants. But just this week, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called on the world's largest tech players to fuel their data center needs entirely with renewables by 2030. It's necessary to use fewer fossil fuels, he said. Experts say it's possible for developers, investors and the tech industry to decarbonize. However, though industry can do a lot with clean energy, the emerging demands are so big that it can't be clean energy alone, said University of Pennsylvania engineering professor Benjamin Lee. More generative AI, ChatGPT and massive data centers means 'relying on wind and solar alone with batteries becomes really, really expensive,' Lee added, hence the attention on natural gas, but also nuclear. What does AI growth mean for my electricity bills? Regardless of what powers AI, the simple law of supply and demand makes it all but certain that costs for consumers will rise. New data center projects might require both new energy generation and existing generation. Developers might also invest in batteries or other infrastructure like transmission lines. All of this costs money, and it needs to be paid for from somewhere. 'In a lot of places in the U.S., they are seeing that rates are going up because utilities are making these moves to try to plan,' said Amanda Smith, a senior scientist at research organization Project Drawdown. 'They're planning transmission infrastructure, new power plants for the growth and the load that's projected, which is what we want them to do," she added. "But we as ratepayers will wind up seeing rates go up to cover that.' ___ Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ___ Read more of AP's climate coverage at ___ The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump signs executive order seeking to clarify college athletes' employment status
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order mandating that federal authorities clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of the schools they play for — attempting to create clearer national standards for the NCAA's name image and likeness program. The move comes amid a dramatic increase in the money flowing into and around college athletics. It also follows key court victories won by current and former athletes angry that they were barred for decades, both from earning income based on their celebrity and from sharing in the billions of revenue they helped generate. Facing a growing number of state laws undercutting its authority, the NCAA in July 2021 cleared the way for athletes to cash in with name, image and likeness deals with brands and sponsors. That came mere days after a 9-0 decision from the Supreme Court that found the NCAA cannot impose caps on education-related benefits schools provide to their athletes because such limits violate antitrust law. Trump's action directs the secretary of labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of collegiate athletes through guidance or rules 'that will maximize the educational benefits and opportunities provided by higher education institutions through athletics.' The NCAA's embrace of NIL deals set the stage for another massive change that took effect July 1: The ability of schools to begin paying millions of dollars to their own athletes, up to $20.5 million per school over the next year. The $2.8 billion House settlement shifts even more power to college athletes, who have also won the ability to transfer from school to school without waiting to play. The NCAA has been lobbying for several years for limited antitrust protection to keep some kind of control over this new landscape — and avoid more crippling lawsuits — but a handful of bills have gone nowhere in Congress. The 1,100 universities that comprise the NCAA have insisted for decades that athletes are students who cannot be considered anything like a school employee. This stance has long been a part of the amateur model at the heart of college athletics, but that model is rapidly being replaced by a more professional structure fed by money that is coming from donors, brands and now the schools themselves. Some coaches have even suggested collective bargaining is a potential solution to the chaos they see. It is a complicated topic: Universities would become responsible for paying wages, benefits, and workers' compensation and schools and conferences have insisted they will fight any such move in court (some already have). While private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state and it's worth noting that virtually every state in the South has 'right to work' laws that present challenges for unions. ___ AP college sports:
