‘Obligation to comply' with Trump: US Olympic, Paralympic officials bar transgender women
The new policy, announced Monday with a quiet change on the USOPC's website and confirmed in a letter sent to national sport governing bodies, follows a similar step taken by the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) earlier this year.
The USOPC change is noted obliquely as a detail under 'USOPC Athlete Safety Policy' and references Trump's executive order, 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports,' signed in February. That order, among other things, threatens to 'rescind all funds' from organisations that allow transgender athlete participation in women's sports.
US Olympic officials told the national governing bodies they will need to follow suit, adding that 'the USOPC has engaged in a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials' since Trump signed the order.
'As a federally chartered organisation, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,' USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and President Gene Sykes wrote in a letter. 'Our revised policy emphasises the importance of ensuring fair and safe competition environments for women. All national governing bodies are required to update their applicable policies in alignment.'
The National Women's Law Centre put out a statement condemning the move.
'By giving into the political demands, the USOPC is sacrificing the needs and safety of its own athletes,' said that organisation's president and CEO, Fatima Goss Graves.
The USOPC oversees around 50 national governing bodies, most of which play a role in everything from the grassroots to elite levels of their sports. That raises the possibility that rules might need to be changed at local sports clubs to retain their memberships in the national sports bodies.
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