NEWSMAX | Published February 7, 2025
In the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting men from playing women’s sports, the NCAA fell in line on Thursday, announcing a new policy that limits college women’s sports to those “assigned female at birth only.”
The NCAA has been criticized — most acutely and frequently by Republican lawmakers — for adopting a policy in January 2022 that abdicated ruling on men playing in women’s sports by leaving it up to the national governing bodies of each sport to come up with their own eligibility standards, policies that allowed men in women’s sports and locker rooms.
It took Trump’s order on Wednesday to put an end to that. The NCAA one day later announced that its Board of Governors voted to update its participation policy for transgender athletes.
“The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only. The policy permits student-athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical care while practicing. This policy is effective immediately and applies to all student-athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews under the NCAA’s prior transgender participation policy,” read the announcement.
“I can’t even begin to tell you how vindicating it feels knowing no girl will ever have to experience what my teammates and I did,” former collegiate swimmer at the University of Kentucky and women’s sports activist Riley Gaines said in a post to X.
Further, the NCAA said if a man who is transitioning to a trans woman is caught competing on a women’s team, “the team will be subject to NCAA mixed-team legislation, and the team will no longer be eligible for NCAA women’s championships.”
Trump’s order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” empowers federal agencies to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with Trump’s first EO on the matter, which ordered the federal government to define sex as male or female.
“I think it’s been supported from the beginning of time. And it’s unbelievable, isn’t it, that we had to have a signing ceremony, a press conference about a man and a woman. But that’s where our country had gone under the Biden administration. Now we’ve got it back on track,” Rep. Roger Williams, R-Texas, told Newsmax earlier Thursday.
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SOURCE: www.newsmax.com
RELATED: US college sports body bars transgender women from competing in women’s divisions
The NCAA logo is seen on courtside chairs as the Northwestern Wildcats shoot around during a practice day ahead of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 21, 2024 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. © Sarah Stier, AFP
FRANCE 24 | Published February 7, 2025
The NCAA changed its policy Thursday to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports, aligning with a new executive order from President Donald Trump. The move marks a major shift for college athletics, overriding previous rules that followed national and international governing bodies.
The governing body for US collegiate sports changed its policy for transgender athletes on Thursday, allowing only those assigned female at birth to compete in women‘s sports.
The move by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) move came one day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at banning transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports.
The order allows federal agencies to deny funding to groups that do not consider birth-assigned genders in determining sex.
The NCAA comprises 1,100 colleges in all 50 states with more than 530,000 student athletes.
“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement.
“To that end, President Trump‘s order provides a clear, national standard.”
Trump took a victory lap on social media, saying he had saved women’s sports.
“Exciting news! Due to my Executive Order, which I proudly signed yesterday, the NCAA has officially changed their policy of allowing men in Women’s Sports – IT IS NOW BANNED!” Trump posted.
Baker said last year he knew of only 10 transgender NCAA athletes, but three former teammates of University of Pennsylvania transgender women’s swimmer Lia Thomas sued the NCAA and the school over Thomas competing at Ivy League and NCAA championships.
San Jose State University also had teams decline to compete against its women’s volleyball team over unconfirmed claims that there was a transgender player on the roster.
The NCAA’s prior rule on transgender athletes had been to default to the position of the sport’s US national governing body or international federation competition rules.
“The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration,” Baker said.
“The Association will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student athletes. We stand ready to assist schools as they look for ways to support any student athletes affected by changes in the policy.”
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SOURCE: www.france24.com
