Sponsors (18)
Defines sex in federal statute as biological and requires governing bodies to use that definition for eligibility and to preserve previously sanctioned single‑sex amateur events.
The bill trades clearer, short‑term certainty for organizers and preservation of recently sanctioned single‑sex amateur competitions against imposing a narrow biological definition of sex that risks excluding transgender/intersex athletes, limiting governing bodies' flexibility, and creating litigation and compliance risks.
Women, students, and other participants in events that were single‑sex in the past 10 years can expect those competitions and their existing sex‑based categories to remain sanctioned and run as planned.
Event organizers and national/local governing bodies gain clearer federal guidance and greater regulatory certainty about how sex‑based eligibility and sanctioning rules are treated, reducing risk of last‑minute de‑sanctioning or inconsistent local decisions.
The bill affirms that coed (mixed‑sex) amateur competitions remain permitted, preserving organizers' ability to run mixed‑sex events.
Transgender, intersex, and gender‑nonconforming athletes face heightened risk of exclusion, confusion, or loss of access because the bill defines sex narrowly (biological/reproductive criteria) and preserves prior single‑sex classifications.
National governing bodies and sports organizations lose flexibility to update or tailor sex‑based categories and eligibility rules, which can impede efforts to respond to competitive fairness, safety, or inclusion concerns.
The law's strict definition of sex and protections for prior single‑sex sanctioning risk creating conflicts with existing state/federal nondiscrimination and medical policies, increasing litigation risk and compliance costs for organizations and potentially taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To amend title 36, United States Code, to provide that a national governing body shall have as an eligibility criteria related to participation in the Olympic Games, a requirement that an amateur athlete may only participate in events corresponding to the sex of such athlete, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 9, 2026 by Michael Cloud · Last progress February 9, 2026
Prohibits national governing bodies for Olympic, Paralympic, Pan‑American and related amateur competitions from using rules that limit participation to athletes based on anything other than the bill’s legal definition of sex. It defines “sex,” “male,” and “female” as immutable biological classifications determined at conception (male = produces sperm; female = produces eggs). The bill also requires governing bodies to continue sanctioning single‑sex (male‑only or female‑only) competitions they sanctioned at any time during the prior ten years and forbids rescinding or altering sex‑based categories for those preexisting events, while allowing coed competitions to continue to be sanctioned.