By Suzanne Bowdey

There are lots of questions about what the 2028 Olympics will look like after California’s wildfires, but one thing isn’t in doubt about the Los Angeles Games: men will not be stealing women’s medals. At least not if Donald Trump can help it.

On the same day that the president set fire to the radical trans sports agenda of the Biden administration, he announced that the Olympics would no longer be a gender free-for-all where women watch helplessly as men shatter their lifelong hopes and dreams. At the signing ceremony for his executive order to protect Title IX and girls’ sports, Trump was adamant that this high-speed train of trans extremism was about to be derailed everywhere — not just in American schools.

“[Secretary of State] Marco [Rubio] is going to make [it] clear to the International Olympic Committee … that America categorically rejects transgender lunacy. We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject. That we even have to talk about this subject [is madness],” the president shook his head. The Left, he pointed out, “all they want to do is [advance] transgender[ism] and men playing in women’s sports and all of these crazy things. … [U]ltimately it’s not going to matter,” Trump insisted, “because we’re never going to go along with them.”

To that point, the president said, “[I]n Los Angeles in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. We’re just not going to let it happen. And it’s going to end, and it’s ending right now. And nobody’s going to be able to do a [darn] thing about it. Because when I speak, we speak with authority.”

Surrounded by girls of all ages Wednesday, Trump thought back to last year’s Paris Olympics, where Algeria’s Imane Khelif (who has male genes), “stole the women’s gold medal after brutalizing his female opponent so viciously that she had to forfeit just after 46 seconds. And she was a championship fighter.” Since those fights, the international uproar has been deafening, even boiling over into the 2024 U.S. presidential race. “I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS!” Donald Trump thundered on Truth Social.

This week, the second-term president lived up to that promise, even going so far as to direct Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States, while identifying themselves as women athletes to try and get into the games.”

In less than 48 hours, the ripple effect has been mammoth. On Thursday afternoon, NCAA President Charlie Baker, who’s been coldly indifferent to the plight of women in college sports during multiple trips to Congress, announced that his association would, in fact, heed Trump’s guidance. “The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only. The policy permits student-athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical care while practicing,” a press release from the NCAA stated, explaining that the move is “effective immediately.”

“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” Baker explained in an official Governance Update. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”

But the standard should have been clear long before this White House took office, activists would say. Now, finally, after multiple lawsuits, public pressure, and a new administration, the NCAA has finally backed down. “About time,” Riley Gaines posted, almost three years after losing her title to male swimmer Lia Thomas. “The NCAA knew what the right thing was the whole time as we all did. They just needed to borrow Trump[‘s] spine to do it. I can’t even begin to tell you how vindicating it feels knowing no girl will ever have to experience what my teammates and I did. Thank God Trump is back in office,” Riley cheered. Maybe now, she added, “they can work on stripping all records, titles, and honors from men who stole from deserving women.”

The president celebrated the NCAA’s surrender, noting, “Due to my Executive Order, which I proudly signed yesterday, the NCAA has officially changed their policy of allowing men in Women’s Sports – IT IS NOW BANNED! This is a great day for women and girls across our Country. … Men should have NEVER been allowed to compete against women in the first place, but I am proud to be the President to SAVE Women’s Sports.” In an open challenge to the remaining holdouts, he added, “We expect the Olympics Committee to also use Common Sense, and implement this policy, which is very popular among the American People, and the entire World!”

These are incredible steps, “a big, big day,” as the president put it. But it’s not the end of the war, as even Trump acknowledges. Despite the unpopularity of their positions, there are still national and international sports bodies that refuse to acknowledge the dangers and inequity of men competing against girls. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated Wednesday that the White House expects them to come into alignment soon.

“I think the president, with the signing of his pen, starts a very public pressure campaign on these organizations to do the right thing for women and for girls across the country,” she told reporters. “Again, this is an incredibly popular position. There have been many notable female athletes who have had the courage to speak out against some very powerful institutions in this country. They deserve to have a voice and a say.”

Even so, there are limits to what the president can do — a fact that Gaines tried to make quite clear to congressional Republicans on the Hill. In the basement of the U.S. Capitol, her message was simple: “This war on woke has not been won.” It won’t be, she emphasized, until there are laws in place to protect them.

“In the next four years,” the All-American swimmer pointed out, “God forbid [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.] runs and wins, this executive order could be overturned just as easily as it was implemented.” Yes, Trump’s orders are a “decisive blow against gender ideology,” Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) agreed. But conservatives can’t rest until these are “permanently codified protections,” he urged.

Congressman Greg Steube (R-Fla.) and Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) have been beating that drum since the Biden administration. Now, with the momentum on their side, they hope to finally pass their Protection of Women in Olympic and Amateur Sports. In a bit of a twist from the duo’s Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act (which passed the House, no thanks to Democrats), the idea here is to force the governing bodies of amateur women’s sports and the Olympics to put a blanket ban on biological males from participating against girls or on their teams.

“From the swimming pool to the boxing ring, far-left activists have hijacked the rulebook to push their extremist agenda onto sports governing bodies. Not only is this antithetical to the principles of fair competition, but it constitutes a direct assault on the future of women’s sports altogether,” the Florida Congressman said.

Tuberville, who coached girls’ basketball early in his career, put it bluntly, “Men should not be competing in women’s sports at any level.” Like Trump, he can’t shake the images from Paris. “We were all deeply disturbed last summer to see videos of men boxing against women in the Olympics. This is not only dangerous but it is incredibly unfair to the young women who have trained their whole lives to compete. Whether in Little League or the Olympics, it’s unsafe, it’s unfair, and it’s just plain wrong,” the Alabaman argued.

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.