Feb. 11 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Education urged the NCAA and the NFHS on Tuesday to restore female athletes’ records and awards that were “wrongfully erased” by biological males, who “unfairly competed” in women’s sports.
The letter, sent to the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations, comes one week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports “as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity and truth.”
The NCAA updated its policies Thursday to comply with the order and limit “competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only.” The Education Department called restoring female athletes’ records the “next necessary step.”
“The next necessary step is to restore athletic records to women who have for years been devalued, ignored and forced to watch men steal their accolades,” said Candice Jackson, deputy general counsel. “The Trump Education Department will do everything in our power to right this wrong and champion the hard-earned accomplishments of past, current and future female collegiate athletes.”
“Because of President Trump’s bold leadership, men will no longer be allowed to compete in women’s sports regardless of how they identify, and the NCAA has correctly changed its tune on its discriminatory practices against female athletes,” Jackson added.
Last week, the Education Department launched investigations into Title IX violations at two federally-funded schools and at an athletic association. The department “strongly encouraged” all K-12 school districts and colleges Tuesday to make their athletic records “factually accurate” where “male athletes were allowed to erase female records during the Biden administration.”
Riley Gaines, who tied for fifth place with University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas in the women’s 200-meter NCAA championship and attended last week’s signing ceremony at the White House, applauded the effort.
“For the past four years, women have been begging for equal opportunities to compete and succeed, only to be ignored,” Gaines said. “Restoring stolen athletic accolades to their rightful owners is a crucial step towards reinstating accountability, integrity and common sense — one that I wholeheartedly support.”
