White House responds to IOC policy change to ban males from women’s sports as activists celebrate

White House press secretary responded to news that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) updated its policies to ensure only biological females compete in women’s sports, and will use genetic testing as enforcement.

Leavitt credited Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” for the change. 

“You cannot change your sex. President Trump’s Executive Order protecting women’s sports made this happen!” Leavitt said. 

Trump signed the order in February of last year, shortly after taking office. The order gives authority to the secretary of state to use measures to get the IOC to change its policy to protect the women’s category.

“The Secretary of State shall use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in womens sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction,” the order states. 

Last July, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) changed its athlete safety policy to enforce Trump’s mandate, directly citing the executive order. 

Then, when Trump announced the creation of an Olympic task force in August, Trump declared that “testing” would be used to enforce the protection of women’s competition at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“There will be some very strong form of testing,” Trump said to a question about the use of genetic testing at LA28.

In October, at the USOPC Winter Olympics media summit, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jonathan Finnoff said that the s being used by World Athletics and World Boxing are “not common” in the U.S., but suggested the USOPC is currently exploring options to employ 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 get this specific test in the United States and so our goal in that was helping to identify labs and options for the athletes to be able to get that testing, and based on that experience, and knowing that some other international federations likely will be following suit,” Finnoff said.

Now, the IOC says it will employ the SRY gene test for any competitor in the women’s category in any Olympic event. 

“Eligibility for any female category event at the Olympic Games or any other IOC event, including individual and team sports, is now limited to biological females, determined on the basis of a one‑time SRY gene screening,” the new policy states. 

The U.S. weighing two cases related to policies on trans athletes.

The attorneys general leading the charge to protect women’s sports in those cases, John McCuskey of West Virginia and Raul Labrador of Idaho, reacted to the news of the policy change on Thursday. 

McCuskey told Fox News Digital he was “very pleased with the IOC’s decision to comply with generalized common sense.” 

McCuskey also credited Trump for his influence in the change. 

“President Trump showed up. I don’t believe the IOC would be doing this if President Trump hadn’t taken a bold leadership position on this,” he said. 

As McCuskey awaits a SCOTUS decision on the case his state is fighting, he believes the IOC’s decision reflects the belief that the general soceity is aligned with his side. McCuskey’s team made its oral arguments to justices in January. 

“I think it is probably further evidence that even while we were making our arguments, that the underlying societal understanding of this issue is very different than the left believed it was,” McCuskey said. 

Labrador said he looks forward to the decisions in his case. 

“The IOC just announced that Olympic women’s sports will be limited to biological females starting in 2028. This is a major step forward for fairness and safety in women’s athletics. I’m