The US has effectively barred transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports at the Olympics, with a committee telling governing bodies they have an "obligation to comply" with an executive order signed by Donald Trump.
The US Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) changed its eligibility rules on Monday to exclude biological men from women's events, with an update on its website confirmed in a letter to national sport governing bodies.
"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," the USOPC said in an update to its Athlete Safety Policy.
The executive order referenced - "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports", signed by US President Trump - among other things, threatens to "rescind all funds" from organisations that allow transgender athlete participation in women's sports.
The reported that a letter confirmed the USOPC's plans. It said that "the USOPC has engaged in a series of respectful and constructive conversations with federal officials" since Trump signed the order.
"As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations," USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and president Gene Sykes wrote in a letter.
"Our revised policy emphasizes the importance of ensuring fair and safe competition environments for women. All National Governing Bodies are required to update their applicable policies in alignment."
Trump signed the order in February in a bid to exclude transgender girls and women from female sports. In signing the order, Trump claimed "the war on women's sports is over".
The order authorises the education department to penalise schools that allow transgender athletes to compete and any school found in violation could lose its federal funding.
It also calls for the US government to deny visas for transgender females seeking to compete in the United States. Trump has said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete in the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has allowed individual sports federations to set their own rules at the Olympics. Its current policy allows trans athletes to compete under general guidance preventing any athlete from gaining an unfair advantage.
Kirsty Coventry, who was elected as the first female president of the IOC in March, said last month there is "overwhelming support" to protect the female category and that she is pushing for a new universal policy on gender eligibility.
Coventry stated she would set up a taskforce of experts and international federations in a bid to develop a policy, with the IOC previously leaving gender regulations to the governing bodies of individual sports.
A growing number of sports federations have barred athletes who have undergone male puberty from competing in elite female competition, though in other sports transgender women are still able to compete in women's events at the Olympics.
"There was overwhelming support that we should protect the female category," said Coventry. "And with that, we will set up a working group made up of experts and international federations.
"It was agreed by the members that the IOC should take a leading role in this. And that we should be the ones to bring together the experts and the international federations and ensure that we find consensus.
"We understand that there will be differences depending on the sports. But it was fully agreed that as members that, as the IOC, we should make the effort to place emphasis on protection of the female category."
In last year's Olympics, boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting won gold medals despite having been disqualified from the previous year's World Championships by the International Boxing Association (IBA) for reportedly failing gender eligibility tests.
The IOC cleared both athletes to compete. World Boxing (WBO) has since introduced mandatory sex testing and said all athletes would be required to undergo the test in order to compete in the female category.
Coventry said no retrospective action would be taken over last year's Games.
"We're not going to be doing anything retrospectively," she added. "We're going to be looking forward. From the members [it] was 'what are we learning from the past, and how are we going to leverage that and move that forward to the future?'"
