The Olympic and Paralympic Committee implements a Trump order and vetoes the participation of trans athletes in women's categories

The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) announced Tuesday that transgender athletes will henceforth be prohibited from competing on behalf of the country in women's Olympic sports, thus complying with an executive order recently signed by President Donald Trump. In a statement, USOPC director Sarah Hirshland explained that the policy change applies to every single sports organization in the country. The move represents a significant change, taking into account that, until now, all sports bodies could establish their own regulations regarding transgender athletes.

Trump's executive order, which was signed in February and is titled "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports," clearly mandated this change and thus placed the country at odds with both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Athletics, both of which allow transgender athletes to participate only under certain medical or eligibility criteria. Numerous sports figures have strongly criticized both organizations by explaining that, on biological grounds, allowing transgender athletes to participate in women's sports represented not only an injustice, but also a danger to female athletes.

"Fair and safe competition environment."

In its Athlete Safety Policy, which already includes the new regulation, the USOPC details that it will work hard to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201." In response to the inclusion of the new measure in its policy, the USA Fencing federation (USA Fencing) released a statement explaining thatit had adjusted all of its guidelines to comply with the new policy, adding that it would officially implement them as of August 1.

"This update, mandated by the USOPC, aligns our sport with current national standards while keeping community support at the forefront," the fencing federation said in its statement.