RELEASE: Congressman Michael Cloud Introduces the SAFE Olympic Sports Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Michael Cloud (TX-27) introduced the Securing Actual Female Events in Olympic Sports Act (SAFE Olympic Sports Act). The introduction comes just after celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day and the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

The bill amends Title 36 of the U.S. Code to require national governing bodies (NGBs) for Olympic and amateur sports to limit participation in events to athletes’ biological sex, defined as immutable and determined at conception.

This legislation builds on President Trump’s February 5, 2025, Executive Order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which prompted the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to ban transgender women from women’s events. However, responses like the Minnesota division of USA Fencing’s August 2025 decision to sanction only mixed-gender events—eliminating women’s-only competitions to accommodate transgender athletes—highlight the need for stronger safeguards to preserve single-sex opportunities.

“Women and girls deserve fair, safe competition without facing biological males,” Rep. Cloud said. “We’ve seen brave athletes like Stephanie Turner, who was disqualified from a USA Fencing tournament in May 2025 for refusing to fence against a man, stand up for what’s right. This bill ensures NGBs like USA Fencing can’t abandon women’s events and upholds the promise of Title IX.”

“The American people delivered a clear mandate to Congress to restore sanity to the field and the locker room and provide children with the opportunity to thrive,” said Terry Schilling, American Principles Project President. “This bill is a vital victory to young athletes and their families against the radicals who see youth sports as nothing more than a laboratory for dangerous social experiments. America’s daughters deserve to feel safe in female-spaces, particularly on the playing field, and the SAFE Olympic Sports Act delivers.”

Key provisions of the SAFE Olympic Sports Act include:

● Requiring NGBs to adopt eligibility criteria limiting participation to events matching an athlete’s biological sex.

● Mandating continued sanctioning of single-sex (men’s-only or women’s-only) events if the NGB has done so in the prior 10 years, preventing the elimination of women’s categories.

● Applying to all levels, from national to local divisions, allows for mixed-gender events but not as a replacement for single-sex ones.

Click here to read bill text.

Original Co-sponsors: Representatives Daniel Webster, John Rose, Anna Paulina Luna, Mary Miller, Clay Higgins, Claudia Tenney, Lauren Boebert, Burgess Owens, Blake Moore, Barry Moore, Nancy Mace, Randy Fine, and Abe Hamadeh.

Group in Support of this Legislation: American Principles Project