President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to protect women’s sports and keep biological men out of them.
The “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order was announced at the White House on National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
The order bans transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. College swimmers and volleyball players have stood up against biological males playing their sports and being in their locker rooms in recent years.
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at the signing ceremony.
Trump said any schools that receive financial funding would be investigated for Title IX violations if they permit transgender athletes to participate on their teams.
The order applies from kindergarten through college.
Trump also has his sights set on the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and is calling on the International Olympic Committee to follow the executive order. He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio will make it clear to the IOC.
“We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics,” Trump said of the IOC, which had a controversy in boxing in the 2024 Games in Paris.
NCAA president Charlie Baker dodged most questions when he appeared before the Senate in December but said at the time that the organization would follow federal law.
On Wednesday, Baker indicated the NCAA was ready to sign on and abide by Trump’s order.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” Baker said in a statement. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.
“The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration. The Association will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes. We stand ready to assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athletes affected by changes in the policy.”
The NCAA has come under criticism by athletes for what they see is discrimination against women.
The NCAA has struggled with how to properly handle the issue and was sued Tuesday by three former Penn swimmers who allege the NCAA violated Title IX by allowing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete for the school and at conference and national championships.
The three swimmers (Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski) also sued Penn, Harvard and the Ivy League. The trio also asked for Thomas’ records and accomplishments in 2022 to be vacated.
Former Kentucky swimmer and now-activist Riley Gaines is part of a lawsuit filed last March against the NCAA for Title IX violations regarding Thomas, who was formerly a swimmer on Penn’s men’s team before the change in gender. Gaines was at the White House for the announcement.
Last fall, San Jose State had a transgender athlete on its women’s volleyball team and received eight forfeit victories when schools refused to compete against the Spartans. Boise State forfeited three times, including in the semifinals of the Mountain West postseason conference tournament.
San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser went public last fall and said the school didn’t inform the players that they had a transgender teammate. Slusser said she roomed with the athlete on a trip and didn’t know she was in the same hotel room as a biological male.
–Field Level Media
