The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (Usepc) has adopted a new guideline that establishes that transgender athletes will no longer be able to compete for the country at the Olympics and Paralympic Games in the women’s categories.
The decision was made after an executive order, entitled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, signed in February by President Donald Trump to veto the participation of transgender athletes of all ages in female competitions, at risk of revoking federal funding.
According to information from ABC News, Usopc President Gene Sykes and committee CEO Sarah Hirshland sent a memo on Tuesday to the United States team (as US delegations participating in the Olympic and Paralympic Games) informing about the change.
“As an organization with federal status, we have an obligation to comply with federal rules,” they claimed.
In February, due to Trump’s order, the National University Athletic Association (NCAA), which organizes university competitions in the United States, had already revoked a 2010 rule that required transgender students to participate in university teams.
NCAA has imposed a guideline that “limits competition in women’s sports only to studying athletes designated as women at birth.”
Since the publication of the executive order, Trump has suspended $ 175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) due to the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports and accused the institution of having practiced sexual discrimination because it allows this participation.
In early July, suspended funds were released after UPENN reached an agreement with the Trump government to ban transgender athletes in women’s sports teams and erase the records established by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
