A rare win for women's sports — but it could vanish overnight

Last month, the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee silently complied with President Donald Trump’s February executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The committee amended its policies to define women’s sports categories on the basis of biological sex and directed its affiliate national governing bodies “to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment.”

This policy change is cause for celebration.

As it turns out, 'the thing that never happens' has happened tens of thousands of times.

For more than a decade, Concerned Women for America and a few partners have been sounding the alarm on the dangers of male participation in women’s sports. But even as the USOPC moves to protect women in its sports and spaces, CWA will not allow the women and girls who have lost medals, missed scholarships, and endured sexual harassment in locker rooms to be quickly forgotten.

On July 22, 2025 — the same day the press stumbled upon the USOPC’s hush-hush policy change — Concerned Women for America released groundbreaking research on male participation in women's sports. Analyzing data compiled from an international women’s sports database, the study found that trans-identifying males have stolen over 1,941 gold medals from women and girls in the U.S., pushing each rightful champion down to second place.

That figure includes just gold medals — and with every gold, an entire podium of girls displaced.

CWA also found that:

• Trans-identifying male athletes have stolen over $493,173 in prize money from women in professional sports.
• In California alone, over 521 women and girls have taken silver below a biological man.
• Trans-identifying males have competed in more than 10,067 female sports events, amateur and professional.
• The most frequent violations occurred in USA Track and Field events, USA Cycling races, NCAA events (in all sports), and Professional Disc Golf Association championships.

We have all seen the photos: hulking, muscular men with long hair, a touch of makeup, and victoriously lifted arms at the top of a podium with apprehensively grinning women dwarfed at second and third place to his right and left.

We have all heard the stories. Paula Scanlon was forced to change with a man in a women’s locker room. Payton McNabb suffered an almost-deadly concussion from a man’s volleyball spike, and Stephanie Turner was disqualified from a fencing championship for refusing to face a man.

Still, progressives call trans-identifying male participation in women’s sports a “non-issue.”

Just one day after the USOPC’s decision hit the press, Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenburg reported, “The so-called ‘problem’ of transgender athletes dominating women’s sports is a ruse.” Rosenburg is wrong, and the left is wrong.

Numbers do not lie. Trans-identifying males do dominate in women’s sports.

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The USOPC policy change will benefit the women and girls competing under its authority. But this change may not last. As soon as Democrats have the White House, President Trump's executive order protecting women's and girls' sports is likely to be reversed, and the USOPC will be free to scrap its new policy.

Though the new policy is a huge step in the right direction for at least the next three years, women’s rights to safe sports should not waver with coming administration changes. Congress must pass the Protecting Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act. This bill is a simple amendment to existing legislation that will stipulate that the USOPC and its affiliate NGBs cannot receive federal funds if males are permitted to compete in women’s categories.

The fight for women’s rights in sports is far from over.

Every woman and girl who lost a gold medal, podium placement, cash prize, record, or scholarship to a male must have restored her rightful honors and accolades, and every leaderboard must be changed to reflect biological reality and female accomplishments. CWA will continue to urge the NCAA and all independent and nonprofit NGBs to follow in the USOPC’s footsteps and reverse any discriminatory policies that allow males to participate in women’s sports.

As it turns out, “the thing that never happens” has happened tens of thousands of times. The USOPC has made a historic decision to protect female athletes, and the fix must be made permanent by law.

This issue is not a “ruse,” and tens of thousands of women can agree that not one more woman or girl should lose a hard-earned medal to a male.