Trump administration plans to pressure IOC to devise a uniform trans athlete ban
President Donald Trump is ready to take his fight against transgender athletes to the International Olympic Committee.
President Donald Trump is ready to take his fight against transgender athletes to the International Olympic Committee.
Trump said Wednesday during a signing ceremony for an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from women’s sports that his administration wants the IOC to “change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject” ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The order empowers the Secretary of State’s office to pressure the IOC to amend standards governing Olympic sporting events “to promote fairness, safety and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”
The order also calls for the Secretary of State and the Department of Homeland Security to “review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of males seeking to participate in women’s sports.” There is no evidence that male athletes have competed in women’s Olympics events.
Outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach said in December that Olympic organizers were “very confident” they could work with the Trump administration. The president initially backed Los Angeles during his first administration when the city bid for the 2024 Games that were awarded to Paris.
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