The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) recently banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, becoming the latest institution to take such action following President Donald Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14201, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” and a wave of state laws seeking to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. The actions have shaken up the sports world and caused uncertainty for schools, colleges, and other educational institutions over athletics participation, reflecting concerns facing employers more broadly.
Quick Hits
- The USOPC has banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, becoming the latest institution to align with a recent executive order from President Trump seeking to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
- The Trump administration has further sought to enforce the policy, bringing a lawsuit against California authorities over the participation of a transgender athlete in the girls’ state track and field championships.
- The actions come as the Supreme Court of the United States is set to hear a pair of cases challenging two of the wave of state laws in recent years that mandate sports participation consistent with athletes’ sex at birth.
- The landscape has created uncertainty for educational institutions and portends potential additional enforcement around gender issues more broadly.
On July 21, 2025, the USOPC changed the “athlete safety policy” posted on its website that effectively bans transgender athletes from women’s sports, adding language that the USOPC will “ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent” with President Trump’s EO 14201. The USOPC also reportedly sent a letter to national governing bodies notifying them of the need to change their policies, accordingly, saying the committee has an “obligation to comply with federal expectations.”
The move comes after the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) took similar action the day after the president’s EO 14201, issued on February 5, 2025, prohibiting athletes assigned male at birth from participating in women’s sports competitions, a reversal from prior NCAA policy that allowed athletes to participate in competition in accordance with their gender identity.
Changing Policy Landscape
President Trump made regulating gender identity issues and sports issues a priority early on in his administration. On his first day in office, he signed EO 14168, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which defines sex as “binary” and “immutable.”
That order was followed by EO 14201, which claimed that allowing transgender women athletes to compete in women’s sports “denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.” Specifically, EO 14201 threatened to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” i.e., allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
EO 14201 further directed the secretary of state to “use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee” amends its eligibility standards to ensure that “participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.” The United States is set to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Moreover, in February 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” announcing it would no longer enforce Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs, based on a now-invalidated Biden-era rule that had interpreted the law’s definition of prohibited discrimination based on “sex” to include discrimination based on gender identity.
Enforcement Actions
More recently, the administration has followed up on those policies. On July 8, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit based on Title IX against the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation after a transgender female athlete finished first in the girls’ triple jump and high jump and second in the girls’ long jump at the California state high school track and field championships.
The lawsuit, which followed reported threats from President Trump to withhold funding if California allowed transgender female athletes to compete in the championships, alleged that policies allowing school athletes to compete in sports that align with their gender identities, “ignore undeniable biological differences between boys and girls, in favor of an amorphous ‘gender identity.’”
That action came after the University of Pennsylvania, on July 1, 2025, settled an OCR Title IX investigation concerning the participation of a transgender female athlete on the women’s swim team during the 2021-2022 season. As part of the settlement, the school agreed to modify three school swimming records and apologize to other athletes “disadvantaged” by the athlete’s participation.
State Policies and Legal Challenges
The Trump administration’s enforcement comes amid a growing debate over sports participation and the distinctions between male and female competitions. Since 2020, at least twenty-seven states have enacted laws banning or restricting students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, particularly targeting transgender girls and women.
The Supreme Court of the United States recently agreed to hear a pair of cases—Little v. Hecox and B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education—during the next term that raise the issue of whether state laws that prohibit transgender female athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports violate Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The agreement to hear the cases come after the Supreme Court recently upheld a Tennessee law that prohibits gender-affirming medical treatments for minors.
But while the USOPC, NCAA, and many states have aligned with the Trump administration’s policy to block transgender athletes from women’s sports, some institutions and states, like California, allow athletes to compete in sports consistent with their gender identity. Further, the president’s executive orders and other attempts to defund programs face ongoing legal challenges, and the lawsuit against California could lead to lengthy litigation and appeals.
What It Means
The Trump administration’s lawsuit against California and the similar OCR investigations exhibit the administration’s interpretation that allowing transgender female athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s school and college sports violates Title IX. The actions highlight a willingness to expand enforcement actions based on a binary and immutable view of sex, including over access to other sex-segregated spaces such as bathrooms.
As a result, schools and other institutions face compliance challenges. It is critical that organizations examine the current evolving legal landscape under federal and state law and determine if their policies and practices are in compliance.
