Trump’s directive on transgender athletes deviates from global standards

As the United States prepares for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, President Donald Trump’s decision to bar transgender people and girls from participating in female sports has set off what is expected to be a protracted and intricate conflict with international sports authorities.

According to Trump’s interpretation of Title IX, a provision that prohibits sex discrimination in education, the order instructs the Department of Justice to ensure that federal, state, and local U.S. government organizations implement a prohibition on transgender girls and women playing female school sports.

Additionally, Trump called on the International Olympic Committee to “change everything to do with the Olympics and this absolutely ridiculous subject” and said that he would not permit transgender athletes to compete in the LA28 Olympics.

Although his supporters applauded his decree, claiming it would bring equality back to women’s sports, international organizations involved in the protracted and contentious dispute did not immediately show their support for him.

Rather, the order is expected to reveal the vast disparity in legislation and rekindle a discussion about the issue as it pertains to elite sport between the IOC and other international sporting federations.

For its Games, the IOC has adamantly resisted to implement any uniform norm. Rather, it directed international federations to develop their own sport-specific regulations in 2021. Rugby, swimming, and athletics are among the sports that have done so, although many others have not yet finalized any policies on the matter.

“Working with the respective international sports federations, the IOC will continue to explain and discuss the various topics with the relevant authorities,” an IOC spokeswoman said in response to Trump’s directive.

Trump’s decree has angered many observers since it seems to confuse athletes with DSD, which stands for “differences of sexual development,” with transgender competitors.

Genes, hormones, and reproductive organs might cause DSD athletes to have genitals that are not always in line with the norm for their sex. Women have a quantifiable physical advantage in development and performance because their bodies naturally produce more testosterone.

THE PARIS CONTROVERSY

When two DSD women boxers won gold medals at the 2024 Games, the IOC—which presently permits transgender athletes to compete in the Olympics—was at the center of the gender dispute.
After signing the order, Trump referred to one of them, Algerian Imane Khelif, as “a male boxer” in his address.

“Who could forget last year’s Paris Olympics, where a male boxer stole the women’s gold medal after brutalizing his female opponent so viciously that she had to forfeit after 46 seconds, and she was a championship fighter,” Trump stated.

Khelif’s most contentious triumph was over Italian Angela Carini, who quit in the first minute, claiming she had never been struck so forcefully.

The sport’s federation disqualified Khelif, who had always participated as a woman, from the 2023 world championships due to a sex chromosomal test that the International Boxing Association said disqualified them.

The IOC now oversees the sport in Paris as the IBA was eventually denied recognition due to governance concerns. After stating that Khelif was born a woman and has participated in female events for years, it gave her the all-clear to fight.

PARTICIPATION IN THE OLYMPICS

Transgender athletes were allowed to compete at the Olympic Games in 2004; the first to do so was Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, who competed in Tokyo in 2021.

There is a lengthy history of DSD athletes competing, with South African middle-distance runner Caster Semenya having the most notoriety. Since then, only a small number of transgender athletes have followed.

Due to a number of new regulations brought about by the previous Olympic champion’s performance, she and other DSD athletes were only permitted to participate as women after having their testosterone levels surgically lowered. Despite more than ten years of decisions and appeals through national and European courts as a result of these limitations, DSD athletes are still mainly prohibited from participating in athletics.

Since the 2028 Games do not receive government funding and the IOC is adamant about conducting its games free from political meddling, Trump’s decision should, in principle, have no effect on them.

However, Trump has previously stated that he would be willing to meddle, even by denying entrance visas, and he has demonstrated little concern for the status quo in other areas.

As per Trump’s directive, the Department of Homeland Security and the secretary of state would have the authority to “review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of males seeking to participate in women’s sports.”

“If you are coming into the country and you are claiming that you are a woman, but you are a male here to compete against women, we’re going to be reviewing that for fraud,” a spokesperson for the administration told reporters.

Trump’s decision and its ramifications are expected to be at the top of the agenda for the seven candidates running to succeed Thomas Bach as IOC president in March, and such a strategy is sure to produce conflict with the IOC.

Some say they want more scientific data to support any decision, while others, like Sebastian Coe, the head of World Athletics, want the IOC to take the lead in creating a clear policy to “protect women’s sport” as he did with his organization.

There is no proposal from any of the contenders to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in the Olympics.