President Donald Trump is ready to take his fight against transgender athletes to the International Olympic Committee.
Trump said Wednesday during a signing ceremony for an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from women's sports that his administration wants the IOC to “change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject" ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The order empowers the Secretary of State's office to pressure the IOC to amend standards governing Olympic sporting events “to promote fairness, safety and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”
The order also calls for the secretary of state and the Department of Homeland Security to “review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of males seeking to participate in women’s sports.” There is no evidence that male athletes have competed in women's Olympics events.
Outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach said in December that Olympic organizers were “very confident” they could work with the Trump administration. The president initially backed Los Angeles during his first administration when the city bid for the 2024 Games that were awarded to Paris.
Officials with the LA28 organizing committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
LA28 organizing committee chairman Casey Wasserman reportedly met with Trump in Florida last month before Trump’s second term began, with Wasserman saying afterward both were looking forward to delivering a successful Games.
The IOC has largely stayed out of the discussion around transgender athletes, letting the international governing bodies for each sport set the parameters for gender participation.
The rules can run the gamut. Entities like World Aquatics have very strict guidelines, while World Triathlon rules are more liberal.
The IOC's stance could change considerably in the near future following Bach's retirement. Among the candidates to replace Bach is former track star Sebastian Coe, now the leader of World Athletics. Coe has been a strong proponent of limiting participation in female sports to cisgender women.
Two years ago, track and field under Coe banned transgender athletes from international competition — adopting the same rules as swimming — and adopted new regulations requiring some athletes to undergo hormone-suppressing treatment for six months before competing to be eligible.
The rhetoric around transgender athletes heated up at the Paris Olympics last summer, with Trump eagerly entering the fray.
On the campaign trail, Trump frequently mislabeled two Olympic female boxers as men and said their ability to participate in the Paris Games was “demeaning to women” even though both Imane Khelif of Algeria and Li Yu-ting of Taiwan were assigned female at birth and identify as women.
Trump referenced both athletes again on Wednesday.
“They had two women or two people that transitioned and both of them won gold medals and they won them very convincingly,” Trump said. “But all of that ends today because with this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”
The question going forward is what kind of leverage the United States can use to influence the IOC. Given the volatile nature of the issue, Trump's order could begin a groundswell among international federations for the IOC to come up with a uniform standard.
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