By Reagan Reese, Daily Caller News Foundation | February 11, 2025
President Donald Trump’s Department of Education (ED) is demanding the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) strip biological men, such as transgender athlete Lia Thomas, of women’s titles and records they previously won while participating in women’s sports, the Daily Caller has learned.
The ED Office of General Counsel also sent a letter to the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) demanding the same be done at the high school level where any biological men have won women’s titles. The letters, the ED writes, are in line with a recent executive order the president signed prohibiting biological men who identify as women from competing in women’s and girl’s sports across the country.
“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,” the letter says.
Following Trump signing the executive order, the NCAA changed its policy to prohibit biological men from participating in women’s sports. Trump’s education department argues that restoring to women their athletic records held by biological men is “entirely consistent” with the NCAA’s new policy.
If the NCAA complies, Thomas, a biological male, would lose any recorded wins while who competing for the University of Pennsylvania on the women’s swim team. Thomas participated in the 2022 NCAA championships, winning the 500-yard women’s final by 1.75 seconds.
“Restoring stolen athletic accolades to their rightful owners is a crucial step towards reinstating accountability, integrity, and common sense — one that I wholeheartedly support,” Riley Gaines, who tied for fifth place with Lia Thomas in the women’s 200-meter NCAA championships, said in a DOE press release obtained by the Caller.
Transgender woman Lia Thomas (L) of the University of Pennsylvania stands on the podium after winning the 500-yard freestyle as other medalists (L-R) Emma Weyant, Erica Sullivan and Brooke Forde pose for a photo at the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving Championshipon March 17, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)
At the high school level, several biological males have claimed victory in female categories, according to local reports. In Washington state, a biological male won the girl’s 400-meter race in the track and field state championship, KREM 2 News, a local Washington outlet, reported. Another biological male was booed in Oregon after winning the girl’s 200-meter race in the track and field state championship, NBC News reported.
The president’s executive order banning biological men from women’s sports was a direct response to proposed actions by former President Joe Biden’s Department of Education. Biden’s education department moved to expand Title IX to protect against discrimination based on an individual’s gender identity. Under Biden’s 2022 proposed rule change, every single-sex space, program, building, bathroom and locker room would be separated on the basis of gender identity rather than biological sex.
The Biden administration then proposed a policy that would prohibit federally funded schools from adopting a “one-size-fits-all-policy” that would keep students from joining sports teams on the basis of gender identity. The rule would have also required public schools to take into account “fairness in competition” and the prevention of “sports-related injury” when developing policies for the creation of sports teams.
“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,” the letter states.
Reagan Reese is a white house correspondent at the Daily Caller News Foundation
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