Sponsors (18)
The bill gives organizers and athletes greater certainty and preserves previously sanctioned single-sex competitions, but it enshrines a rigid, biological definition of sex that risks excluding transgender/intersex athletes and creating legal and compliance costs for governing bodies.
Organizers, state/local divisions, and national governing bodies gain clear federal guidance limiting sex-based eligibility rules and predictable sanctioning, reducing uncertainty and the risk of last-minute loss of event sanctioning.
Participants in previously sanctioned single-sex amateur events — particularly women and student athletes — can expect those events to retain their single-sex classifications for covered events, preserving existing competitive opportunities and structures.
The bill explicitly preserves the ability to sanction and hold coed/mixed-sex competitions, so mixed events remain permitted under governing bodies' rules.
Transgender and intersex athletes may be excluded, confused by, or disadvantaged under a strict biological-at-conception definition of sex that conflicts with medical and identity criteria, limiting their ability to participate.
The bill's definition of sex and protections for prior single-sex sanctioning could conflict with existing federal and state nondiscrimination and medical policies, increasing litigation risk and compliance costs for schools, governing bodies, and taxpayers.
National governing bodies and event organizers lose flexibility to update sex-based categories or eligibility rules to address evolving fairness, safety, or inclusion concerns, creating administrative burdens and potential disruption to competition management.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Bars Olympic‑style governing bodies from using eligibility rules tied to sex other than immutable biological sex at conception and requires continued sanctioning of previously sanctioned single‑sex amateur events.
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 athletes to events matching a sex category defined by immutable biological sex at conception, and requires those bodies to continue sanctioning previously sanctioned single‑sex amateur events held within the last 10 years. Also sets definitions of “sex,” “male,” and “female” as biologically determined at conception and restricts rescinding or changing sex‑based categories for events that were earlier sanctioned and remain scheduled.