New Olympic Ban on Transgender Athletes is Discrimination Disguised as Protection

by

Aubrey Weaver

08/01/2025

Graphics by Aubrey Weaver

This week, the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee quietly changed its rules to exclude transgender women from competing in women’s events. The decision cites "safety" and "fairness," but the reality is far more insidious. It’s an endorsement of the same paternalistic myth we’ve fought for decades: that women are fragile things in need of guarding, rather than full participants deserving of autonomy.

Buried in an obscure website update, the policy aligns with an executive order signed earlier this year. Its language is deliberately vague, referring only to "federal expectations" rather than naming the transgender athletes it targets. The intent is crystal clear. Transgender women are barred outright, while transgender men face no equivalent restrictions in men’s sports. The double standard reveals the underlying bias: this isn’t about fairness. It’s about the persistent belief that womanhood is a category defined by limitation.

THE FACTS THEY IGNORE

Transgender athletes are not new to competition. They’ve participated for decades without upending women’s sports. Consider:

• Tennis player Renee Richards reached the 1977 U.S. Open doubles final but lost to Martina Navratilova, a cis woman.

• Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, the first openly transgender Olympian, didn’t medal in 2020 despite relentless media scrutiny.

• Transgender women make up less than 0.002% of college athletes—a statistical non-issue inflated into a moral panic. For Olympic athletes that miniscule is even less, as 0.001% of recent Olympians openly identify as transgender and/or nonbinary. 

Study after study has debunked the myth of inherent advantage. A 2024 IOC-funded analysis found transgender women athletes often have lower lung capacity and weaker muscle strength than cisgender men. Bone density, a key factor in performance, aligns with cis women’s profiles.  Yet, these nuances are dismissed in favor of political expediency.

THE REAL HARM

The Olympic ban isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a sweeping effort to legislate transgender bodies out of public life—one that inevitably ensnares cis women, too. When policies police gender through testosterone levels or physical traits, it is Black and brown athletes, like Caster Semenya, who face the cruelest scrutiny. Semenya, a cisgender woman, was forced to medically alter her natural hormone levels to compete. Meanwhile, these same institutions citing “safety” and “fairness” continuously ignore the historical epidemic of sexual violence in women’s sports. Over 300 gymnasts were abused under USA Gymnastics’ watch while officials looked away and covered up the abuses. Where was the outrage for them?

OUR STANCE

The Ruth Collective has always operated from a simple premise: bodily autonomy is not conditional. Whether it’s abortion access or gender-affirming care, we trust individuals to make decisions about their own lives. Sports should be no different.

Transgender women are women. Their participation doesn’t threaten women’s sports—but excluding them threatens the very idea of equality. We stand with every athlete told they don’t belong, and we’ll keep fighting until the playing field is truly open to all.

References

Associated Press. (2025, July 22). US Olympic officials ban transgender women from women’s events. AP News. 

Macur, J. (2025, July 21). U.S. Olympic Committee changes rules to bar transgender women from women’s sports. The New York Times. 

Office of Transgender Initiatives. (n.d.). Trans women in sports: Facts over fear. City and County of San Francisco.