Donald Trump‑backed USOPC transgender athlete ban may never take effect as legal challenges intensify
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in July 2025 changed its rules to ban transgender women from women's Olympic sports. The change happened after President Donald Trump's team gave a legal letter explaining it would not break the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act from 1978.
That legal cover let USOPC update policy, but experts say court fights are likely.
Jill Pilgrim and other Olympic legal experts warn USOPC policy may face lawsuits
In July 2025 in Washington, lawyers from the Trump administration sent USOPC a legal brief. They argued that banning transgender women did not conflict with the Ted Stevens Act, the law that guides Olympic sports in the US.
This gave USOPC room to roll out a new Athlete Safety Policy. The policy says all 54 national governing bodies must rewrite their rules to match Trump's February 2025 executive order titled
'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports'.
USOPC leadership- CEO Sarah Hirshland and board chair Gene Sykes sent a letter to all sport groups. They said,
'As a federally chartered organization, we must follow federal expectations,'
and that the new policy aligns with the Ted Stevens Act.
Only a few sport bodies had rules that already matched the new policy when USOPC released the guidance. USA Fencing was among the first to change, after a woman in Maryland refused to compete against a transgender opponent.
Shannon Minter says transgender athletes will challenge new USOPC rule
Olympic legal expert Jill Pilgrim, a former general counsel for USA Track & Field, praised the Trump legal brief. She called it
'a well thought‑out, well‑reasoned set of arguments for people who want to look at it from that perspective.'
Yet she added she would be 'pretty shocked if this doesn't get challenged' by a trans athlete at world championship or Olympic trials.
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Shannon Minter, legal director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said it will not be hard to find a transgender athlete harmed by the change. She predicted the legal brief
'will be challenged and is highly unlikely to succeed.'
Minter explained some international federations allow transgender women under specific conditions and USOPC cannot override that.
Traditional process means an athlete first goes through Section IX arbitration before suing in U.S. courts. Pilgrim explained that if an athlete wins arbitration and USOPC bans them anyway, then legal action is almost certain.
FAQs
What is the USOPC transgender athlete ban?
It's a new rule from the U.S.
Olympic and Paralympic Committee that stops transgender women from competing in women's sports.
Why did USOPC change its transgender athlete policy?
USOPC updated the policy after Donald Trump's legal team said it would not break the Ted Stevens Act.
Can the USOPC transgender athlete ban be challenged?
Yes, experts say transgender athletes could challenge the ban in court or through Section IX arbitration.
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