President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports Wednesday and vowed the order will also apply to border security for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
During Trump’s ceremony at the White House to sign the executive order, he announced that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem will prohibit any transgender athletes attempting to compete as women from entering the country for the Olympics in 2028.
Trump said he will instruct Noem “to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes try and get into the Games.”
Earlier Wednesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said part of the motivation behind Trump’s executive order would be to create a “pressure campaign” for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and NCAA to follow and prevent transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
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“He does expect the Olympic committee and the NCAA to no longer allow men to compete in women’s sports,” Leavitt said. “I think the president, with the signing of his pen, starts a very public pressure campaign on these organizations to do the right thing for women and for girls.
“Again, this is an incredibly popular position. There have been many notable female athletes who have had the courage to speak out against some very powerful institutions in this country. They deserve to have a voice and a say. The president is bringing their voice to the highest level of the White House. He expects these organizations to comply with this federal executive order he will be signing today.”
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There was controversy surrounding gender eligibility at the Paris Olympics in July and August.
Boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan won gold medals in women’s boxing. Both athletes had previously been disqualified from international competitions for failing gender eligibility tests. However, the IOC and current President Thomas Bach voiced support for both athletes. The IOC also insisted that both athletes were biologically female.
Before that, Laurel Hubbard, a transgender woman, competed in weightlifting for the New Zealand team, and Canadian soccer player Quinn came out as nonbinary and transgender in 2020.
With Bach preparing to leave office later this year, the IOC’s next president could help carry out Trump’s vision on the issue more cooperatively.
Former British Olympic champion Sebastian Coe is a candidate to be the next IOC president and has suggested he will take action to prevent transgender inclusion in women’s events.
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Coe published a manifesto for his vision as IOC president as he campaigns for the position, and it stressed the importance of protecting female athletes.
Unlike Bach, Coe opposes transgender inclusion in the women’s category and said he would explore a complete ban on transgender athletes in an interview with Sky News.
“We will have a very clear policy that will be unambiguous,” Coe said. “We’ve been very clear in World Athletics that transgender athletes will not be competing in the female category at the elite level.”
Lord Sebastian Coe speaks during a memorial service for Kevan Gosper in the Olympic Room at the Melbourne Cricket Ground Sept. 17, 2024, in Melbourne, Australia. Gosper was an Olympian, former AOC president and IOC vice president who died July 19, 2024, after a short illness. (Daniel Pockett/Getty Images for the AOC)
Coe is the current head of World Athletics, the governing body for international track and field competition. In 2023, the governing body tightened its regulations on transgender athletes to exclude transgender women who have gone through male puberty from competing in the female category. That regulation also lowered the maximum testosterone level for eligible female competitors.
Coe said if he becomes IOC president, the new Olympic policy on transgender inclusion will “probably” reflect the one he has established in World Athletics. Coe has also said the controversy surrounding Khelif and Yu-ting made him feel “uncomfortable.”
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The United Nations released study findings saying that nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of winning medals because they lost to transgender athletes.
The study, “Violence against women and girls in sports,” said more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information obtained up to March 30.
“The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males,” the report said.
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