Trump should ban trans athletes competing against women at the 2028 LA Olympics

In threatening on Truth Social to withhold federal funding to California for allowing biological men to compete against women, Donald Trump was trying to restore fairness to amateur athletics.

He was also setting the scene for a major showdown at the pinnacle of professional athletics: the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The President on Tuesday cited a “transitioned male athlete” who had “won everything” as he warned Governor Gavin Newsom that funds would be cut if his executive order, aimed at protecting women’s sports, was not implemented.

But in trying to make the state comply with his directive, he is also applying pressure to the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), which this week signaled it would sidestep the order. At its first board meeting of the year, CEO Sarah Hirshland tried to wash her hands of the matter, saying international federations would decide if trans athletes could represent their countries.

Her words have set up a slow motion car crash with the President – and potentially even the Governor of California who has called it “deeply unfair” for trans-identified male athletes to participate in girls’ sports. Trump is trying to make Newsom walk the walk after talking the talk.

For the first time in history, at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics there will be more women’s events than men’s. Naturally, this expanded field is an appealing opportunity for any athlete looking to compete and win. But in today’s distorted world of international sport – where men are allowed to compete as women – it’s women who will lose. And some will get hurt.

Today, the majority of Olympic-pipeline competition happens outside of the reach of Title IX that prohibits discrimination for federally-funded programs. More dollars are now spent in the private youth sports market in America than all the professional sports combined. Analysts estimate its billions of dollars. Any athlete competing and training for a private club within the Olympic movement remains outside Title IX protections.

The US Olympic Committee’s funding comes largely from private companies, not the federal government. While the International Olympic Committee is also funded largely from private companies and also sets its own rules. As of now, their “rules” allow males to win gold medals in women’s boxing.

The truth is this: governing bodies are choosing corporate sponsorships and institutional image over the safety and dignity of female athletes. They’re afraid to lose funding from “woke” companies, so they refuse to take a stand for women. Protecting reputations is apparently more important than protecting athletes.

For the first time ever, flag football will be an Olympic sport. NFL Owners just voted to allow NFL players to participate in the 2028 Olympic Games. This is big news for the NFL players, because the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) will let them play as women.

The Women’s National Football Conference (WFNC) also allows male athletes to play as women. Male athlete “Kara” Corcoran played three seasons for the Denver Bandits and made the WNFC All-Pro Second Team.

When male athletes – who enjoy male advantages such as greater skeletal mass, larger heart size, higher oxygen uptake and more fast-twitch muscle fibers – compete against women, they win.

Consider the case of international male rugby player “Ashley” Mooney, who tore female player Elena King’s ACL and MCL in a women’s match in the Netherlands. He had previously injured other female opponents, including one whom he knocked unconscious. In response to such incidents, World Rugby advised against transgender women in women’s contact rugby for safety – but the guidance isn’t binding. National federations like the Dutch Rugby Association can ignore it.

Olympic sport remains infected by a culture of systemic abuse. Just last fall, the United Nations released a report condemning the growing trend of forcing female athletes to compete against males. The report documented multiple forms of violence against women in sport, including physical harm, psychological trauma, and coercion. Compelled participation against biological men isn’t inclusion; it’s institutionalized abuse.

Governing bodies that allow men to compete in women’s categories – either through policy or cowardice – are complicit. They are not just ignoring abuse; they are enabling it and covering it up.

Congress must act now. It must assert stronger oversight over the waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars tied to Olympic host cities that will have vast discretionary power to spend taxpayer dollars. In Los Angeles, costs are already ballooning.

Japan spent $13 billion on Tokyo 2020. Rio de Janeiro spent $20 billion in 2016. And a GAO report shows that US host cities have historically spent nearly all of their federal Olympic funding without any oversight or transparency.

Taxpayer dollars earmarked for Los Angeles 2028 should be transparent – not a blank check wrapped in Olympic branding, while the abuse of female athletes continues.

Congress must:

1. Pass legislation to ensure that women’s club sports, which are the pipeline to college and Olympic opportunities, are open to biological females only
2. Call on all US sports-governing bodies to restore the integrity of the women’s sport by restoring non-invasive, confidential and simple sex screenings
3. Investigate the root causes of the backlog of sexual abuse cases in US SafeSport and put measures in place to remedy
4. Prohibit any and all federal funding of non-governmental organizations that silence speech and debate about the participation of male athletes in female sporting categories and take steps to protect the free speech rights of athletes advocating for fairness, safety, and equality in sport

Change will be hard to achieve, and Los Angeles 2028 is not far away. But with women’s sports at an all-time high, it’s time we got to work and fixed the problem of men stealing women’s glory and putting female athletes in danger, once and for all.