The Department of Education took another step Tuesday in advancing the Trump administration's new transgender policy for sports by asking the NCAA and a key high-school sports organization to restore titles, awards and records it says have been “misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories.”
The department's office of general counsel sent a letter requesting the changes to the National Federation of State High School Associations and the NCAA. In a news release, the department said the request was “entirely consistent with the NCAA's new policy.”
The day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week aimed at banning transgender athletes from women's and girls sports, the NCAA changed its participation policy to restrict competition in women's sports to athletes who were assigned female at birth.
Neither the NCAA nor the high school federation immediately returned emails from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The most obvious target for reallocation on the college level would come in women's swimming, where transgender swimmer Lia Thomas won the national title in the 500-yard freestyle in 2022.
While the NCAA probably could go back and rewrite its record book, the way it has when recruiting and other violations have stripped titles from certain schools, changing high school records would likely take an effort from individual state high school associations across the country.
"The Trump Education Department will do everything in our power to right this wrong and champion the hard-earned accomplishments of past, current, and future female collegiate athletes,” said Candice Jackson, deputy general counsel at the department.
