'Men Out of Women’s Sports': Trump Sets 2028 Olympic Rule

US President Donald Trump has said he will keep “the men out of women's sports” at the LA 2028 Summer Olympics, asserting that there are only two genders.

Reiterating his administration’s stance on gender policy in sports, Trump has now signed an executive order declaring that “there are only two genders,” male and female.

"Complicated, isn't it?... We have put the world on notice that America will not allow men to compete against women in the 2028 Olympics," he said.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed a strongly worded order titled ‘Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government.’ It stated that gender identity reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, "disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex."

It continued to say that across the US, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to "permit men to self-identify as women" and gain access to activities designed for women. "This is wrong," the order said.

Now, the President has reiterated his stance on the two-gender theory, specifically in the context of sports. The move comes alongside International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Kirsty Coventry vowing to bring in the policy introducing a blanket ban on transgender women from female categories across all sports, with the IOC saying the policy is expected to be announced in the first half of this year.

The move would mark the first uniform framework adopted jointly by the IOC and international sports federations, covering major events across dozens of sports, including the Olympic Games and world championships. At present, individual federations follow their own eligibility rules, which vary widely, Al Jazeera reported.

"Protecting the female category is one of the key reforms she wants to bring in," IOC spokesman Mark Adams ⁠had told a news conference at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games last month.

In recent years, a growing number of sports federations—including World Aquatics and World Athletics—have barred athletes who have undergone male puberty from competing in elite women’s competitions, citing concerns over fairness and safety.

In May, the Football Association and the England and Wales Cricket Board were among several British sports bodies to adopt similar measures following a UK Supreme Court ruling that defined a woman in legal terms based on biological sex.

These moves have been opposed by transgender rights campaigners, who argue that such policies could violate human rights and maintain that inclusion should be prioritised.

Both World Athletics and World Boxing too introduced genetic sex screening last year.

The Paris 2024 Olympics were also mired in controversy after Algeria’s Imane Khelif won the women’s welterweight boxing gold medal, a year after being disqualified from the World Championships for reportedly failing a gender eligibility test.

The IOC cleared the 25-year-old to compete, along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who had also been banned by the now-suspended International Boxing Association. The IOC said athletes were eligible for the women’s division if their passports identified them as female. Both fighters maintained that they were women, had always competed in the women’s category, and there was no suggestion that they were transgender.

Trump’s Previous Executive Orders 

On his first day in office in 2025, Trump signed an executive order declaring that his administration would only "recognize two sexes, male and female."

These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality, it stated.

The order mentioned that "Gender ideology" replaces the biological category of sex with an ever-shifting concept of self-assessed gender identity, permitting the false claim that males can identify as and thus become women and vice versa, and requiring all institutions of society to regard this "false claim as true."

 This was just one of several of Trump’s orders that sparked controversy over the concept of gender identity. The President, who also signed the ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’ order in February 2025, has already barred transgender athletes in the United States from competing in the female category in school, college and professional sporting events. The order also stated that the administration shall use all measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to "promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes" by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is "determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction."

Since then, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee also barred transgender women from competing in women’s sports, informing the federations governing swimming, athletics and other disciplines that they have an "obligation to comply" with an executive order issued by Trump.

Among other provisions, the order warns that organisations permitting transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports could face a threat to "rescind all funds."

In another step restricting transgender participation, Trump rescinded an order issued by his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, which had allowed transgender troops to serve in the military. 

"A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member," Trump’s executive order read.

Adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an "honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life," it mentioned.

The order further stated that such an identity was incompatible with the "rigorous standards necessary for military service".