NEWYou can now listen to PK Press Club articles!
NEW YORK – Leaders of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) addressed the topic of mandatory sex testing to protect women’s sports from male biological trans athletes during a press conference at its media summit on Tuesday.
USOPC President Sarah Hirshland declined to answer whether she would personally support mandatory genetic testing to protect women’s categories when asked by PK Press Club Digital, after President Donald Trump suggested at an August press conference that there would be a “very strong form” of sex testing to prevent biological males from competing in women’s competitions at the Los Angeles Olympics. Angeles in 2028.
Hirshland said she would support all decisions made by world governing bodies and individual U.S. governing bodies for their respective sports.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PK Press Club
“We are here to provide support and help,” Hirshland said. “But ultimately, the definition of competition eligibility must be done at the individual sporting level, whether at the global or national level.”
However, in July, the USOPC updated its athlete safety policy to indicate compliance with Trump’s executive order “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports”, and US governing bodies in turn amended their trans athlete participation policy to comply with the new USOPC guidelines.
No U.S. governing body currently uses sex testing to protect the female category. World Athletics and World Boxing are the two largest global governing bodies to use sex testing.
USOPC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jonathan Finnoff said of regular sex testing for women’s sports: “The expectation is that this is where world sport, international sport, will go.”
Finnoff added: “And fortunately, the executive order designed to protect women’s sports in the United States is very much in line with the international trend.”
Finnoff also said that SRY genetic testing used by World Athletics and World Boxing is “not common” in the United States, but suggested that the USOPC is currently exploring the possibility of using sexual 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 so our goal was to help identify laboratories and options for athletes to take this test, and based on that experience, to know that other international federations will likely follow suit,” Finnoff said.
HOW TRANSGENDERISM IN SPORT POSTPONED THE 2024 ELECTIONS AND UNMOULDED A NATIONAL COUNTER-CULTURE
A presentation during a World Athletics A panel meeting in Tokyo in September found that 50 to 60 athletes with male biological advantages had been finalists in the women’s category at world and continental championships since 2000.
The panel was led by World Athletics Head of Health and Science, Dr Stéphane Bermon, who said: sex tests were necessary due to an “overrepresentation” of DSD (differences of sexual development) athletes among the finalists, according to multiple reports.
Last October, the The United Nations said that nearly 900 biological women failed to make the podium because they were beaten by trans athletes.
The findings were compiled by Reem Alsalem, UN rapporteur on violence against women and titled “Violence against women and girls in sport.”
The report said more than 600 athletes failed to medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 sports, totaling more than 890 medals, according to information obtained as of March 30.
“The replacement of the women’s sporting category with a mixed category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against men,” the report said.
The new president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Kirsty Coventry, broached the subject of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports in her first news conference since taking office in June and said there was “overwhelming support” from IOC members to protect the women’s category.
“We understand that there will be differences depending on the sport… but it was very clear from members that we need to protect the women’s category, first and foremost to ensure fairness,” Coventry said. “But we need to do it with a scientific approach and including international federations who have already done a lot of work in this area.”
The new president added that there is “unanimous” support for reaching agreement on how to change the policy and suggested the IOC could take inspiration from World Athletics’ policy, which prohibits biological males from competing in women’s sports if they have reached male puberty.
“It was very clear from the membership that the discussion on this needed to be conducted with medical and scientific research at the center, so we are looking at the facts and the nuances and the inclusion of international federations who have done a lot of this work… taking a seat at the table and sharing with us because every sport is different,” she said.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks after signing an executive order to create a White House Olympics Task Force to manage security and other issues related to the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics, August 5, 2025. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/TPX Images of the day)
A January survey by The New York Times and Ipsos found that the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, do not believe transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
“Thinking of transgender female athletes “—that is, athletes who were male at birth but currently identify as female—do you think they should or should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports?,” the survey asks.
Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said biological males who identify as female should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
