California may be hosting the 2028 Olympics, but that doesn’t mean its twisted ideas about gender will be governing them.
In a major shift, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) finally put an end to years of injustice, declaring that biological men can no longer compete in women’s categories for Team USA. For Donald Trump, it’s another triumph of influence. For America’s daughters, it’s a victory in a war they never should’ve had to fight.
The news comes after the controversial Paris Olympics, where the games were obscured, at least in part, by the storm clouds of trans ideology. Around the world, people watched the dreams of several female boxers come crashing down at the hands of male competitors named Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting. Italy’s Angela Carini, who quit her match after a 46-second pummeling at the hands of Algeria’s Khelif, told reporters after she fell to her knees and withdrew that she had “never been hit so hard in her life. She’s too strong,” Carini told her coach later. “I didn’t give up,” she insisted, “but a punch hurt too much, and so I said I had enough. I go out with my head held high.”
That heart-wrenching saga played out on the world stage, driving home to everyone the very real victims of this dangerous movement to blur the gender lines. At the White House in February, the president swore, “[I]n Los Angeles in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. We’re just not going to let it happen. And it’s going to end, and it’s ending right now. And nobody’s going to be able to do a [darn] thing about it. Because when I speak, we speak with authority.”
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Five months later, the committee altered its website, writing that “elements of fairness demand that we reconcile athlete inclusion and athlete opportunity. The only way to do that for all genders, and specifically for those who are transgender, is to rely on real data and science-based evidence rather than ideology. That means making science-based decisions, sport by sport and discipline by discipline, within both the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”
In a letter to America’s national sport governing bodies, Olympic officials warned that these groups will need to follow suit, citing Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” “As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and President Gene Sykes explained. “Our revised policy emphasizes the importance of ensuring fair and safe competition environments for women. All National Governing Bodies are required to update their applicable policies in alignment.”
William Bock, who resigned from the NCAA’s Rules Committee in protest and is now representing athletes (including Riley Gaines) in their suit against the association, told The Washington Stand that this is “a momentous step for women and for integrity in women’s sport.” “During the first half of 2025,” he stressed, “hundreds of trans-identifying men competed in women’s sports like cycling, fencing, swimming, track and field, and many others, stealing placements, recognition, safety, and privacy in locker rooms from women and girls.”
Thanks to this administration, that’s going to change.
“This is yet another example of President Trump’s faithful commitment to fulfilling his promise to protect women and girls in sport,” Bock insisted. “Already, [sports] like USA Fencing have started changing their rules to protect women.”
While most people joined him in applauding the committee’s (long overdue) return to sanity, they still can’t believe it took this long. The faces of the women’s sports movement — athletes like Gaines — were appreciative, but mostly to Trump. If he hadn’t persisted and threatened these powerhouses’ federal funding, there’s no guarantee any of them would have done the right thing — regardless of the tidal wave of support for such a move.
“It’s hard to applaud an organization for merely following the law,” Gaines conceded, “but nonetheless, this is a win.” Others shared her reluctant praise. “Many national and international sports governing bodies have been cowards on the easy moral imperative of not allowing men to threaten the women’s division,” NRO’s Caroline Downey pointed out. “I’m glad Trump forced their hand. They would have never done the right thing otherwise.”
Jennifer Sey, founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, a brand born to protect girls’ sports, largely agreed with the bittersweet reaction from the American mainstream. “The USOPC has essentially agreed to comply with federal law. It seems unnecessary to celebrate an organization for that but here we are,” she acknowledged. “So yeah, we’re happy about it. And I’m thrilled that the Trump administration put pressure on them to do the right thing.” But, she warns, “The USOPC did not specify the details about enforcement and the next step must be to confirm they will test for sex to ensure compliance. Not a birth certificate. A simple spit test. One time. This is not [an] outright Olympic ban in that it is only for the US, US Olympic teams and competitors in the US Olympic movement.”
So the battle isn’t over, Sey warns. Far from it. “We need the [International Olympic Committee] to establish the same rules to ensure that women’s sports in the Olympic Games are protected and for women only. Right now, [it’s] country by country. So a US competitor could show up and compete against a man from another country. The IOC rules aren’t set. And while IOC new president Kirsty Coventry has said she will protect the women’s category, we are awaiting the rules. Much progress. Not done.”
That cautionary note was echoed by experts like Bock, who called on Congress to follow up by “immediately amending the federal Olympic & Amateur Sports Act to confirm that these essential legal protections for women and girls pre-empt conflicting state laws and give women a private right of action to enforce their rights in sport against recalcitrant sport governing bodies.” In fact, he told TWS, “The USOPC and the federally funded U.S. Center for Safe Sport must now show the same vigor in protecting a level playing field and safe locker rooms for women as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency does in protecting a level playing field against doping.”
Bock, who led the prosecution against Lance Armstrong for doping, underscored that as blue states “make it easy to change the sex markers on birth certificates,” it’s paramount that both the USOPC and Center for Safe Sport “immediately adopt non-intrusive sex verification standards to protect women across all Olympic and Paralympic Sports from youth through masters levels and ensure that the U.S. sends only women to represent the U.S. in the women’s category and on women’s teams in international competitions. Keeping men out of women’s sport should be included in the USOPC’s annual evaluation of NGBs and in the annual reports to Congress made by both the USOPC and Center for Safe Sport.”
Going forward, he reiterated, “Congress should ensure that the next CEO of the U.S. Center for Safe Sport is committed to keeping men out of women’s sports and women’s locker rooms and evaluate the Center’s progress on the key metric of keeping men out of women’s sports.”
These next steps are hugely important, especially as key questions still swirl: “How is the USOPC going to determine who is eligible to compete in women’s sports?” and “How does the USOPC plan to implement the policy?”
For now, Bock maintained, Americans should be encouraged. “The resolve of President Trump to protect women from men in women’s locker rooms and fairness in women’s sport has resulted in more progress in protecting women’s rights over the last six months than many thought possible. The movement to protect fairness and integrity in women’s sports now has real momentum,” he underscored, “and there is every reason to be hopeful that these key rights for women can be fully and permanently secured before the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.”
Originally published at The Washington Stand.
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer for The Washington Stand. In her role, she drafts commentary on topics such as life, consumer activism, media and entertainment, sexuality, education, religious freedom, and other issues that affect the institutions of marriage and family. Over the past 20 years at FRC, her op-eds have been featured in publications ranging from the Washington Times to The Christian Post. Suzanne is a graduate of Taylor University in Upland, Ind., with majors in both English Writing and Political Science.
