USA Climbing recently announced a significant alteration that will be made to its rules of participation for transgender athletes, and transgender women in particular. According to the organization’s statement released on July 22, the forthcoming change “effectively prohibits transgender female eligibility within women’s categories at all USA Climbing sanctioned events.”
Per the information in the above statement, the policy shift at USA Climbing is coming downstream from Executive Order 14201—signed by President Donald Trump on February 5—which prompted the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) to update its Athlete Safety Policy accordingly, requiring all its member organizations—national governing bodies of sport in the United States, like USA Climbing—“to ensure that women have a fair and safe competition environment consistent with Executive Order 14201 and the Ted Stevens Olympic & Amateur Sports Act,” as written in USOPC’s updated policy.
According to an article by the Associated Press on ESPN.com, “The new policy, announced Monday [July 21] with a quiet change on the USOPC’s website and confirmed in a letter sent to national sport governing bodies, follows a similar step taken by the NCAA earlier this year…U.S. Olympic officials told the national governing bodies they will need to follow suit…”
At USA Climbing, the stated change represents a stark contrast from the organization’s previous Transgender Athlete Participation Policy that’s currently under review, which largely provided stipulations by which transgender women athletes could compete in women’s categories at USA Climbing events.
“As you may recall, USA Climbing and the Transgender Athlete Participation (TAP) Policy Revision group have spent significant time, effort, and resources soliciting member feedback, hosting listening sessions, and drafting new TAP guidelines,” read USA Climbing’s aforementioned statement. “While we are aware that today’s news will be disappointing to many, we thank the TAP Policy Revision Group, USA Climbing members, and other stakeholders who have contributed to this important process.”
“This isn’t USA Climbing’s desired policy,” added Marc Norman, CEO of USA Climbing, in an article recently published on Climbing.com. According to the article, Norman “[emphasized] that the USOPC could decertify USA Climbing if it doesn’t comply with the new directive to align with President Trump’s Executive Order 14201…”
Of additional note is the contrast between the imposed restrictions in the U.S. and the current policy of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)—which states, “Provided they meet eligibility criteria that are consistent with principle 4, athletes should be allowed to compete in the category that best aligns with their self-determined gender identity…”—as well as the current policy of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC)—which states, “The IFSC [and its members] should treat a Transgender person as belonging to the Sex in which they present (as opposed to the Sex they were born with)…,” and, “Those who transition from male to female are eligible to compete in the female category…,” listing certain conditions for doing so.
Both the IOC and the IFSC, as international organizations, operate outside the purview and authority of the U.S. federal administration and any executive orders.
USA Climbing indicated in its statement that an updated Transgender Athlete Participation Policy will be released “as soon as possible.” The organization’s resources regarding transgender athlete participation can be found here.
[Editor’s Note: Since this article was published, USA Climbing released its new Competition Eligibility Policy on December 17, 2025.]
