President Donald Trump has taken credit for the International Olympic Committee's decision to ban transgender athletes from women's sports.

It was in February of 2025 when Trump issued the 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' executive order, which banned transgender athletes from women's amateur sports while also threatening the funding of any organization that failed to comply. 

And it was that move, Trump says, that paved the way for the Olympics to act this week. 

Posting on Truth Social on Thursday night, he wrote: 'Congratulations to the International Olympic Committee on their decision to ban Men from Women’s Sports. This is only happening because of my powerful Executive Order, standing up for Women and Girls!'

It was a sentiment echoed earlier in the day by his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt. Re-posting an article on the subject from The Associated Press, the White House spokeswoman added a few words on the decision.

'You cannot change your sex,' she wrote. 'President Trump's Executive Order protecting women's sports made this happen!'

On Thursday, the IOC imposed a once-in-a-lifetime SRY gene test to help 'protect fairness, safety and integrity in the female category,' the organization said in Thursday's statement. 

The announcement comes nearly one year after World Athletics introduced its own mandatory gene testing for select female events, similarly eliminating anyone with the SRY gene found on the Y chromosome.

Furthermore, the EO required the Secretary of State to ensure the IOC would change its policy to 'promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes…'

At the time, The Hill reported a Trump administration official saying the order gave Secretary of State Marco Rubio the power to 'target visas issued to professional and elite transgender athletes.'

With the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics looming, the IOC followed the NCAA and the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in adopting Trump's policies on transgender athletes in women's sports.

Currently it's unclear if any transgender athletes will compete in the 2028 games.

There weren't any openly transgender competitors at the 2024 Paris Games. And although boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting faced accusations of failed gender-eligibility tests, Khelif continues to deny the claim while Yu-ting has recently been cleared by the Asian Boxing Championships to return to competition. 

Khelif has not fought in any World Boxing events since that organization adopted gender testing, but has stated her desire to compete again at the Olympics, where she won gold for Algeria in 2024.

Transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard of Team New Zealand did compete at the Tokyo Games in 2021, but failed to win a medal.