The NCAA has barred transgender athletes from competing in women’s college sports, in a sweeping new policy that could apply to fewer than 10 athletes across the country.
In a statement Thursday, the sports organization said that effective immediately, only athletes assigned female at birth will be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Trans athletes can still practice with women’s teams and have access to medical care and other benefits, the NCAA said. The policy, enacted to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump signed a day earlier, does not apply to trans men.
The NCAA previously deferred policies on trans athletes to each sport’s national governing body.
More than 500,000 student-athletes play NCAA sports. Of that number, fewer than 10 of them are trans, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel in December. He did not say if those athletes are trans women or trans men.








