President Donald Trump’s Department of Education (ED) is calling on the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to revoke women’s titles and records previously awarded to biological men, including transgender athlete Lia Thomas, who competed in women’s sports, the Daily Caller has learned.
The ED Office of General Counsel extended this directive to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), requesting similar action at the high school level where biological men have claimed women’s titles. These communications align with a recent executive order signed by the president that prohibits biological men who identify as women from participating in women’s and girls’ sports nationwide.
“We cannot undo the damage inflicted by years of policies and practices that have denied the material reality of sex and conflated that immutable characteristic with a subjective, fluid concept of ‘identity’ by prospectively returning to objective, factual sex classifications in athletics,” Trump’s ED writes in its letter, obtained exclusively by the Caller. “But we can recognize the harms done and injustices committed by such misguided policies and reversing their effects will restore a genuine commitment to girls’ and women’s equality of opportunity in athletic competition across the United States.”
Following Trump’s executive order, the NCAA implemented a policy change prohibiting biological men from participating in women’s sports. The education department argues that returning athletic records to women is “entirely consistent” with the NCAA’s new stance.
If implemented, the change would affect Thomas’s records, including the victory at the 2022 NCAA championships, where Thomas won the 500-yard women’s final by 1.75 seconds while competing for the University of Pennsylvania’s women’s swim team.
Riley Gaines, who tied for fifth place with Thomas in the women’s 200-meter NCAA championships, expressed support in a DOE press release: “Restoring stolen athletic accolades to their rightful owners is a crucial step towards reinstating accountability, integrity, and common sense — one that I wholeheartedly support.”
At the high school level, multiple instances of biological males winning in female categories have been reported. In Washington state, a biological male won the girls’ 400-meter race in the track and field state championship, according to KREM 2 News. In Oregon, a similar situation occurred in the girls’ 200-meter race at the track and field state championship, as reported by NBC News.
The president’s executive order came as a direct response to proposed actions by former President Joe Biden’s Department of Education, which had moved to expand Title IX to protect against discrimination based on gender identity. Biden’s 2022 proposed rule change would have required single-sex spaces and programs to be separated based on gender identity rather than biological sex.
The ED’s letter concludes: “The NCAA’s and NFHS’s leadership on this issue will also encourage K-12 school districts, interscholastic athletic associations, and sports governing bodies to similarly act to restore to girls and women the dignity and equality of opportunity represented by factually accurate records of female athletic accomplishments.”
