Transgender athletes in limbo as Olympic sports grapple with USOPC ban

San Francisco Chronicle​

25-07-2025

American transgender women will no longer be able to compete in events that match their gender identity, as the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee aligned its policies on athlete eligibility to match the Trump administration's gender politics.
Earlier this week the USOPC quietly updated its athlete safety policy, 'to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act.'
In a letter reported by international media, USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirschland and board chair Gene Sykes justified the change by saying 'as a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations.' The letter went on to say that the USOPC would work with National Governing Bodies (NGBs) under its umbrella to hammer out details.
Since taking office Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have pushed a number of executive orders limiting transgender participation in public life. Examples include preventing transgender women from using bathrooms that match their gender identity in federally owned buildings, threatening to withdraw federal funding from hospitals that provide gender affirming healthcare for transgender children and barring transgender girls and women from playing on sports teams that match their identity in schools.
Both California and Maine received threats from the Trump Administration over the potential to withhold federal funds unless transgender school sport inclusion policies were changed. Maine sued the administration after funds were withheld, settling out of court and not budging on changing its policies. Meanwhile, California's track and field state championships were mired in controversy after introducing a new policy that allowed transgender athletes to compete, but offered separate podium spots for cisgender athletes that were beaten by transgender athletes.
The long-term ramifications of the USOPC's decision remain up in the air. The committee did not respond to multiple requests and a detailed list of questions from the Chronicle about which level of athletes will be affected, or how the new policy came to be.
What levels this ban will apply to, however, have not been finalized, but will have an impact well beyond the U.S. national teams.
As part of its mission to administer Olympic sports in the United States the USOPC oversees 50 Olympic NGBs and a variety of Paralympic NGBs. The USOPC's decision to change its athlete eligibility policy exposes a tough reality for the IOC, which oversees 206 different National Olympic Committees.
The USOPC does not receive any federal funding, and as a private organization is not bound by federal policy. However, it does draw a significant amount of its athlete base from the NCAA and other school institutions.
Navigating a political landscape where different countries have different laws and regulations regarding gender identity in sports is the IOC's new reality after it spent close to a decade reviewing its landmark 2016 policy that allowed athletes to compete in the Olympic Games without the need for gender confirmation surgery. Previously, transgender athletes were first allowed to compete in the Olympic Games at Athens 2004, but required surgery to be eligible.
'This is a highly complex topic which has been approached by International Federations and National Olympic Committees in different ways depending on their sport and their national legislation and context,' an IOC spokesperson said in a statement to the Chronicle.
The body is now seeing NOCs and International Federations taking markedly different paths to implementing its 2021 'Framework on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity and Sex Variations.'
That policy represented a marked shift for the IOC, delegating to international federations the responsibility to draft its own policies with regards to transgender, intersex and gender diverse athletes in their sports. Still, the policy called on federations to both respect people's gender identity and craft processes to draft policies that did not presume competitive advantages from transgender athletes.
Kirsty Coventry became the first woman to lead the IOC after she was elected president in June of this year. The new President is a staunch ally of outgoing president Thomas Bach, who oversaw both the 2016 and 2021 transgender inclusion policies. The same month of her election the IOC held a workshop on the future of transgender inclusion in women's sport, which led to 'overwhelming support…for the proposal that the IOC should protect the female category.'
'It was agreed by the IOC Members that the IOC should take a leading role in this, and should bring together experts and the International Federations, in order to look for a consensus,' the spokesperson added.
With the USOPC's decision to move in line with the Trump administration's political agenda and despite the lack of any federal laws banning transgender athletes, the new policy would not be considered government interference in a National Olympic Committee's affairs. If an NOC is found to have been influenced by a national government, the IOC could revoke its standing and bar athletes from competing under their national flag at the Olympic Games.
In addition, the IOC has offered athletes with barred NOCs or other extenuating political circumstances the chance to compete in the Olympics as independent or neutral athletes. It remains to be seen if transfeminine athletes from the United States can compete if rules for the international federations which organize competitions have more liberal transgender inclusion policies. How those athletes would compete in the United States in events organized by international federations, and not the USOPC or relevant NGBs, such as the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games or other World Championships, also remains an open question.
In the United States, some NGBs have attempted to begin answering some of these questions. At least one NGB, USA Fencing, changed its eligibility to reflect the updated policy from the USOPC. Other NGBs such as USA Track and Field and USA Swimming had previously updated their eligibility policies to be in line with their sports' international federations, which had placed strict requirements for participating transgender women – which many organizations have labeled de facto bans.
USA Fencing on its website says that it updated its eligibility policy to bring 'fencing into compliance,' with the new USOPC guidance and will be effective on Aug. 1. Previously in April, USA Fencing put on its website a ' proactive ' update to its inclusion policy that would not go into effect unless directed by the USOPC or the International Fencing Federation (FIE), which came from a 'months‑long review,' starting in 2023 according to USA Fencing Director of Communications Bryan Wendell.
'The policy applies to all USA Fencing‑sanctioned domestic competitions and categories, including amateur, veteran/masters, and youth events. Mixed‑gender local events remain unchanged,' Wendell told the Chronicle, and that there was 'no formal directive' from the USfOPC about this policy.
Transgender athletes competing at all levels told the Chronicle there remain a number of questions, such as whether all NGBs will extend this policy to include all competitions, including masters and amateur competition.
'[This] ambiguity is abject cowardice meant to shield USOPC leadership from consequences while creating a policy vacuum that will almost certainly hurt everyone that isn't a cisgender man,' Kristen Aliberto, a transfeminine player for the New York Exiles of Women's Elite Rugby said.
Without clarity, trans women have no idea where they will be able to compete in their sports going forward, if they are even able to, she added.
Athlete Ally, an advocacy organization dedicated to promoting inclusion for LGBTQ athletes in all sports, called the USOPC 'another example of an institution giving up their authority and expertise to politicians" in a statement. 'This rule change is not in response to new research or new guidelines from medical experts in sports. Instead, it is the result of mounting political pressure and government hostility toward one of the smallest minorities in society, let alone sports.'
The Ted Stevens Act from 1978 chartered the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Executive Order 14201 was signed by President Donald Trump after his second inauguration, titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports,' and threatened to revoke federal funding to schools and institutions that allow transgender women from competing in women's sports. The order did not discuss intersex or transgender male athletes, instead designating that the only athletes able to compete in 'women's' events were those assigned female at birth by a doctor.
Almost immediately, the NCAA announced it would comply with the executive order and updated its athlete eligibility policy, a change that affected 'less than 10' student-athletes among more than 500,000 playing college sports in the U.S.
For U.S. transfeminine athletes, Olympic dreams appear to have been shattered, with little recourse for how this conflicting set of rules aligns with the current patchwork international sport system. And for amateur athletes, there will be questions about how far NGBs go in banning transfeminine athletes in masters and youth events not organized in school settings. Legal challenges in both the U.S. court system and the Court of Arbitration for Sport remain possibilities.