Transgender women will no longer be eligible to participate in the United States in the Olympic or Paralympic Games in the female categories, after a recent change in policy of American Olympic & Paralympic committee (USOPC).
The committee cited the executive decree of President Donald Trump, entitled “Keeping men outside female sports”, which imposes an immediate application, including against schools and sports associations which “refuse women of single sex and the unique sex changing rooms”, according to the document, and directs state prosecutors to identify the best practices to set up the mandate.
In a memo of the American team community on Tuesday, obtained by ABC News, the president of the USOPC, Gene Sykes and the CEO Sarah Hirshland, referred to the Trump ordinance and said: “As an organization with a federal charter, we have the obligation to meet federal expectations.”
The USOPC is responsible for supporting, entering and supervising the American teams at the Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as sporting events for all ages, from young people to masters.
In an update of its athlete security policy, without using the word transgender by its name, the USOPC said that its revised policy “underlines the importance of ensuring fair and safe competition environments for women.”
The Olympic rings are represented outside the International Olympic Committee (CIO) before the newly elected president Kirsty Coventry First meeting of the Board of Directors at the Olympic Chamber of Lausanne, Switzerland, June 25, 2025.
Denis Balibouse / Reuters, file
“The USOPC is committed to protecting opportunities for athletes participating in sport. The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with surveillance responsibilities, for example, IOC, IPC, NGBS, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment with the executive order 14201 and Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act, “The revised policy said on the USOPC website.
The Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act establishes a process to manage eligibility disputes for each Olympic sport and participation in amateur sports competitions. He was sponsored by the senator from Alaska Ted Stevens and adopted in 1998.
The revised USOPC policy does not show how the ban will work and if the same decision applies to male sports.
ABC News contacted the USOPC to obtain clarifications and did not immediately hear.
Following the revised policy, USA Fencing updated its eligibility guidelines between the sexes, which will take effect on August 1. Transgender women, non -binary athletes, transgender men and intersex athletes will participate exclusively in male competitions, according to politics.
