
In a move that has sparked international controversy, the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has announced a ban on trans women competing in women’s categories at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The decision comes just three years before the 2028 Summer Olympics are set to be held in Los Angeles.
The policy shift, quietly introduced on the USOPC’s website and confirmed in a letter to national sport governing bodies, follows a February executive order by President Donald Trump titled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports. The order mandates strict enforcement of single-sex participation in sport and threatens to withdraw federal funding from organisations that do not comply.
“As a federally chartered organisation, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” wrote USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and President Gene Sykes in a memo to the Team USA community. The revised policy, while not explicitly naming trans athletes, emphasises the importance of “fair and safe competition environments”.
The ban applies across all Olympic and Paralympic sports overseen by the USOPC, including athletics, swimming, and gymnastics. National governing bodies have been instructed to align their policies accordingly, raising concerns that the directive could trickle down to grassroots and youth sport levels.
Critics, including the National Women’s Law Centre, have condemned the move as politically motivated and harmful to transgender athletes. “By giving into political demands, the USOPC is sacrificing the needs and safety of its own athletes,” said the organisation’s president, Fatima Goss Graves.