USAU is recognized by the USOPC as an affiliate organization.
July 23, 2025 by Charlie Eisenhood in News
The United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee altered its policies to align with a recent Executive Order from the Trump Administration and will now bar transgender women from competing in Women’s competition.
“As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland and President Gene Sykes wrote in an email to stakeholders yesterday. “The guidance we’ve received aligns with the Ted Stevens Act, reinforcing our mandated responsibility to promote athlete safety and competitive fairness. Accordingly, we have updated our athlete safety policy to reflect this federal guidance. 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.”
The athlete safety policy now includes a single paragraph addressing the Executive Order: “The USOPC is committed to protecting opportunities for athletes participating in sport. The USOPC will continue to colaborate 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, 36 U.S.C § 22501, et. seq.”
USA Ultimate, a USOPC Recognized Sport Organization and affiliate, recently reaffirmed its commitment to its Gender Inclusion Policy that allows all athletes to compete in the division where they feel most comfortable, including allowing transgender women to compete in the Women’s Division. At this time, it is unclear of USA Ultimate will be expected to alter its rules about transgender competitors in the women’s division, since ultimate is not an Olympic sport.
“Until we have an opportunity to fully evaluate [the USOPC policy changes] and gain a better understanding of the facts, we will refrain from speculating about what they might mean for ultimate,” USA Ultimate Director of Communications Andy Lee told Ultiworld in a statement. “As this process continues, and we engage in dialogue with various partners, stakeholders, and community members, we would like to reiterate our ongoing and steadfast commitment to our gender inclusion policy and our efforts to create, maintain and promote welcoming and inclusive spaces for all members, including our transgender athletes.”
If USAU is required to alter its gender policy to meet USOPC guidelines, the organization may have to choose between its affiliation with the US Olympic Committee and its stated commitment to inclusion.
Many additional questions remain about how the USOPC policy will be enacted and enforced. USA Fencing became the first organization to change its policy: it will allow only “athletes who are of the female sex” to compete in the Women’s Division, with the Men’s Division “open to all athletes not eligible for the Women’s Category, including transgender women, transgender men, non-binary and intersex athletes, and cisgender male athletes.” Fencing has been at the center of the controversy around transgender athletes in women’s sports that included a Congressional hearing.
Rules around the sporting world are still shifting. In February, the NCAA announced a ban on transgender women in women’s sports just one day after the Trump Administration signed the Executive Order. The International Olympic Committee hasn’t yet made a definitive decision on transgender participation: the organization instead created a framework for its international sports federation to use in determining eligibility rules for their individual sports. However, its newly elected president, Kirsty Coventry, is going to address the topic more head on; Coventry has expressed skepticism about allowing transgender women in women’s divisions at the Olympics.
USA Ultimate has one of the most inclusion-first policies in sports, not requiring hormone treatment or instating other rules around participation in the women’s division. “We affirm that people of all gender identities should have the freedom to participate in USA Ultimate sanctioned or championship series events in the division in which they feel most comfortable and safe based on their gender identity and should be recognized, respected and included at every level of the sport,” reads the Gender Inclusion Policy, first instituted in 2020.
Late last year, the USOPC awarded USAU the 2024 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Choice Award for its “efforts to bring ultimate to a younger and more diverse population in local communities through a partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA).”
