The US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) appears to have banned transgender women from competing in women’s Olympic sports, as the New York Times reports and as we have verified.
The change, occurring sometime between mid-May and mid-June, amounts to the addition of a new section to the USOPC Athlete Safety Policy, which reads as follows:
”3.3 Additional Requirements
”The USOPC is committed to protecting opportunities for athletes participating in sport. The USOPC will continue to collaborate with various stakeholders with oversight responsibilities, e.g., IOC, IPC, NGBs, to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act, 36 U.S.C § 22501, et. seq. Section 4.”
Said Executive Order was published on Feb. 5 under the title “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports” and makes it US policy – on the basis of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 – to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.” In addition, the US is to “oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
The change, however, cannot be due to any threat of rescinded funding. Unlike most Olympic committees, the USOPC receives no funds from its national government. It is a federally chartered but privately funded non-profit.
