# Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act

This bill focuses on protecting women athletes by establishing rules about who can compete in women's sports categories at the Olympic level and in amateur sports organizations that receive federal funding or recognition. The core issue is about eligibility—specifically, it aims to ensure that athletes competing in women's categories meet certain biological criteria related to sex.

The bill would require that women's sports teams and competitions define eligibility based on biological sex rather than gender identity alone. This means that to compete in women's sports, athletes would need to meet standards related to their sex assigned at birth or biological characteristics. The legislation applies to organizations that receive federal funding, have federal recognition, or participate in interstate commerce, which covers most major amateur sports organizations and Olympic programs in the United States.

The practical effect would be that sports organizations would need to update their eligibility policies to align with these biological standards. This could affect transgender athletes who wish to compete in women's categories, as they would likely face new restrictions or requirements they didn't previously have. For most cisgender women athletes—those whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth—this bill would have little to no impact on their ability to compete.

The bill essentially takes the decision about women's sports eligibility out of individual organizations' hands and puts it into federal law, standardizing the rules across all federally-funded or recognized amateur sports and Olympic programs. Supporters argue this protects fairness in women's sports, while critics contend it could discriminate against transgender athletes and that sports organizations should be allowed to set their own policies.

Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports Act

Tuberville, Tommy

Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports ActThis bill requires certified national governing bodies (NGBs) of amateur sports (e.g., USA Gymnastics)&nbsp;to prohibit a person whose sex is male from participating in an amateur athletic competition that is designated for females, women, or girls.Under the bill, male&nbsp;means an individual who has, had, will have—or would have, but for a developmental or genetic anomaly or historical accident—the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes sperm for fertilization.