The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is taking a hard line—and LGBTQ athletes are the ones paying the price. In a quiet policy shift, the committee announced it will enforce Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports, aligning itself with one of the former president’s most controversial and discriminatory moves since returning to office.
The updated “Athlete Safety Policy,” which carefully avoids using the word “transgender” but clearly references Trump’s Executive Order 14201—dubbed “No Men in Women’s Sports”—was quietly uploaded to the USOPC’s site without public fanfare. The 27-page document pledges to ensure “fair and safe competition” for women, though critics argue the real intent is to exclude and erase trans athletes from elite competition.
USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and President Gene Sykes tried to downplay the backlash, citing compliance obligations under federal law. “As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” they wrote in a letter to Team USA members. “Our guidance aligns with the Ted Stevens Act,” they added, suggesting that barring trans women from women’s sports is somehow part of athlete safety and fairness.
But fairness for whom?
Erased from the Arena
Despite all the talk about competitive equity, transgender athletes remain a sliver of the sporting world. NCAA President Charlie Baker testified earlier this year that fewer than 10 transgender athletes currently compete among over half a million college athletes. This latest move by the USOPC feels less like policy and more like political theater—and trans athletes are caught in the crossfire.
The policy doesn’t spell out which athletes will be banned from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, leaving room for opaque enforcement and selective targeting. While nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz, assigned female at birth, might not be impacted, other trans women now face an uncertain athletic future on the world stage.
No trans woman has ever medaled in the Olympics. New Zealand weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Games, didn’t reach the podium in Tokyo 2020. Yet conservative lawmakers and pundits continue to use the idea of trans dominance in sports as a scare tactic to push broader anti-LGBTQ agendas.
The Bigger Picture: A War on Trans Rights
The USOPC’s policy shift is just one piece of a much larger, aggressive campaign from Trump’s administration to roll back trans rights nationwide. Since retaking office, Trump has reinstated the military ban on trans service members, ordered prisons to relocate trans women to male facilities, and forced passport gender markers to match assigned sex at birth.
And now, the Olympic dream is under threat too.
The impact on the LGBTQ community is undeniable. This policy doesn’t just restrict participation—it sends a chilling message to young trans athletes watching from home: you’re not welcome. In a moment when queer representation in sports should be expanding, the USOPC has chosen compliance over courage.
Hundreds of athletes have spoken out. A letter signed by over 400 athletes last year urged athletic institutions to “be on the right side of history.” They warned that bans like these are driven by propaganda and ignore actual evidence—like studies showing trans women who undergo hormone therapy don’t have a clear advantage over cisgender competitors.
But in this political climate, facts take a backseat to fear.
As Team USA looks ahead to 2028, one thing’s clear: the arena of inclusion just got a lot smaller. And the LGBTQ community, yet again, finds itself forced to fight for a place at the starting line.