A group of Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday called on the organizers of the Olympics to “base eligibility for women’s athletic competitions on biological sex,” pushing to align the Games with an executive order President Trump signed last month aimed at prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports.
Such a policy would be a departure for the International Olympic Committee, which leaves eligibility rules for transgender women up to the global federations that govern individual sports. The 2028 Summer Olympics are set to be held in Los Angeles.
“President Trump affirmed the position of the American people and those around the world, that we must preserve fairness, safety, and equal opportunity for female athletes,” the Republicans wrote in a letter to Thomas Bach, the outgoing president of the International Olympic Committee. “In preparation for the 2028 Summer Olympics, commitment from the I.O.C. to protect women’s sports is paramount.”
The letter was signed by more than two dozen Republicans across both chambers, an effort led by Senator James Risch of Idaho, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Representative Burgess Owens of Utah. It urged Mr. Bach to modify the body’s rules to “reaffirm the I.O.C.’s commitment to upholding the integrity of women’s Olympic competitions and ensure that only biological women and girls are allowed to compete in female sports categories.”
The letter signals a continuation of Republican efforts to shape policy around transgender participation in sports, a debate that has animated cultural and political discourse in recent years.
The letter, reported earlier by Fox, was sent days before officials were set to meet to elect a new president of the committee and discuss preparations for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles. It came weeks after the House passed a Republican-written bill aiming to place a federal ban on transgender girls participating on girls’ sports teams at K-12 schools.
During the 2024 Paris Olympics, transgender women who had gone through puberty as males were effectively barred from swimming, cycling and track and field events.
When Mr. Trump’s order was signed in February, he directed Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, to target athletes who he said were “attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes” by denying their travel visas for the Olympics.
Content Source: www.nytimes.com