USA Rugby creates open division for trans athletes in response to Trump order

USA Rugby, the country’s governing body for the sport of rugby, announced Friday it would launch a new “open” gender division to accommodate transgender athletes.

The new rule comes more than a year after President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order and nearly seven months after a new requirement from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) requiring all governing bodies to comply.

“USA Rugby will now have three competition categories; the Men’s Division, the Women’s Division and the Open Division. The Open Division will allow all athletes, regardless of gender assigned at birth and gender identity, to compete in USA Rugby-sanctioned events, whether full contact or non-contact,” the organization said in a statement.

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The organization’s policy apparently allows all hopeful competitors to choose their gender at registration, with potential scrutiny by officials.

“Division status will be determined during the membership application and registration process when an athlete selects the ‘gender’ option in Rugby Xplorer. When applying for membership or registering as ‘Female’ or registering for an event in the Women’s Division, an athlete represents and warrants to USA Rugby that they are Female.”

“This representation creates a rebuttable presumption that the individual’s assigned sex at birth is female,” the organization’s member policy states.

USA’s Gabriella Cantorna, Ilona Maher and Emily Henrich before the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup match against Samoa at York Community Stadium in York, England on September 6, 2025. (Molly Darlington/World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)

“The determination of whether an individual is a Female may be determined through records obtained from authorized sources. Only USA Rugby will have the right to challenge an individual’s status in the Women’s Division or challenge the presumption of an athlete registered as a ‘Female’.”

In July, the USOPC updated its athlete safety policy to reflect compliance with Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.

But Trump has also pushed for mandatory genetic testing of athletes to preserve the women’s category at the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, due to concerns about forged birth certificates allowing biological men access to women’s sports.

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USA Rugby goal line flag before the match between the United States and Scotland at Audi Field in Washington, D.C. on July 12, 2024 (Scott Taetsch/Getty Images for Scottish Rugby)

USOPC Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Finnoff said at the USOPC media summit in October that the SRY gene tests used by World Athletics and World Boxing are “not widespread” in the United States, but suggested the USOPC was exploring options to use sex testing options for its own teams and expected other world governing bodies to “follow suit.”

“It’s not very common to get this specific test in the United States, and so our goal here was to help identify labs and options for athletes to be able to get this test. And (it was) based on that experience and knowing that some other international federations would probably follow suit,” Finnoff said.

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