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USA Rugby, rugby’s national governing body, announced Friday it would introduce a new “open” gender division to accommodate trans athletes.
The new rule comes more than a year after President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” and nearly seven months after the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s (USOPC) new requirement that all governing bodies comply.
“USA Rugby will now have three categories of competition: the men’s division, the women’s division and the open division. The open division will allow any athlete, regardless of their assigned sex at birth and gender identity, to participate in USA Rugby sanctioned events, whether contact or non-contact,” the organization said in a statement.
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American Cassidy Bargell passes the ball during a Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 match against Samoa at the LNER Community Stadium in Monks Cross, York on September 6, 2025. (Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto)
The organization’s policy also apparently allows any promising contestant to simply select their gender when registering, with potential oversight by officials.
“Division status will be determined during the membership application and registration process, when an athlete selects the ‘gender’ option in Rugby
“This depiction creates a rebuttable presumption that the individual’s sex identified at birth was female,” the organization’s member policy states.
Gabriella Cantorna, Ilona Maher and Emily Henrich of the United States before a Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 match against Samoa at York Community Stadium on September 6, 2025, in York, England. (Molly Darlington/World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
“The determination of an individual’s female character may be made using records from authoritative sources. Only USA Rugby will have the right to challenge the individual’s status in the women’s division or to challenge the presumption of an athlete being registered as ‘female’.”
In July, the USOPC updated its athlete safety policy to indicate compliance with Trump’s executive order “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
However, Trump has also pushed for mandatory genetic testing of athletes to protect the women’s category at the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, due to concerns about fake birth certificates allowing biological males into women’s sports.
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The United States Rugby goal line flag before a match between the United States and Scotland at Audi Field on July 12, 2024, in Washington, DC (Scott Taetsch/Getty Images for Scottish Rugby)
USOPC Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Finnoff said at the USOPC Media Summit in October that SRY genetic testing used by World Athletics and World Boxing is “not common” in the United States, but suggested that the USOPC is exploring the possibility of using sex testing options for its own teams and that he expects other world governing bodies to “follow suit.”
“It’s not necessarily very common to take this specific test in the United States and, therefore, our goal was to help identify laboratories and options for athletes to take this test. And (it was) based on that experience and knowing that other international federations would likely follow suit,” Finnoff said.
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