Published December 5, 2024
Editor’s Note
A cold civil war is fought not just in the political realm but in the trenches of culture as well. Though American sports are often regarded as one of the last conservative cultural strongholds — and are (or should be) by nature focused on excellence and merit — they have seen some of the destructive Left’s most radical advances in recent years. Here, Jennifer Bryson lays out a practical roadmap for how President-elect Trump and Republicans in Congress can exercise already existing authority to retake this vital territory on the cultural front.
For years, the Left has recognized the cultural significance of sports and has used sports to promote cultural transformations that would serve their objectives, such as advancing the sexual revolution and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The Right, by contrast, has largely looked at sports naively as if they were merely about health, fun, and competition. We must recognize that sports are a major cultural institution, and act accordingly. Our opponents already do.
It is in our national interest to have healthy citizens, a culture of fairness, and great competitors, not least of all in professional and international sports. President-elect Trump and the incoming Republican Congress should work to align sports governance with our national interest.
President-elect Trump should set three goals for sports during his administration and urge Republican members of Congress to support them:
- End the invasion of female sports by males.
- Prohibit images other than our flag on Team USA uniforms and gear.
- Remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from sports governance.
To do this, we need our leaders to understand where the levers of power for sports governance lie and pull them when needed. They should approach laws and personnel appointments related to sports with political savvy.
The Structure of American Sports Governance
In 1978, recognizing that the complex and high-stakes nature of American participation in the Olympics and other levels of amateur sports went beyond what private oversight could effectively handle, the United States Congress passed legislation to delegate exclusive jurisdiction for the oversight of nearly all governance of amateur sports to the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), now known as the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). Today, the USOPC is a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization, a Title 36 Corporation. (In most countries, the government itself regulates sports through a Ministry of Sports or similar government authority.)
The use of the word “Olympic” in this name is confusing, and it masks just how broad the authority of the USOPC is. The Olympics are only one part of its mission. The authority of the USOPC extends further. Decades ago, one of its previous names was “United States of America Sports Federation”; this name would make more sense today.
One authority Congress delegated to the USOPC in 1978 is the power to certify — or decertify — the national-level governing bodies for individual sports.
Each sport has a national-level governing body that sets rules and policies for the sport, organizes men’s and women’s national teams for international competition, and represents American participation in that sport to the sport’s international governing body. The national governing body of a sport has a say in how that sport is played at multiple levels of amateur athletics, and there is a connection to professional play as well.
In theory, the USOPC’s oversight was supposed to ensure that if a national governing body for an individual sport became corrupt or incompetent, the USOPC could decertify and replace it or, at a minimum, threaten decertification to provoke reform. When the USOPC failed to ensure competence at USA Gymnastics and USA Gymnastics failed to protect athletes from sexual abuse, Congress updated the mandate for the USOPC in 2020. This 2020 update assures that, if needed, Congress can dissolve a national governing body for a sport or even the USOPC itself.
Considering the structure of American sports governance, here are concrete steps toward the three goals I identified.
1. Two Sexes: Male and Female
The majority Republican Congress could require the USOPC to base separation of sport on sex, male and female, and to certify only national governing bodies which do the same while requiring the USOPC to decertify any allowing “gender” self-identification.
In sports for which the international governing body allows “gender” self-identification, our message would be that the U.S. is a sovereign country with the right to make decisions about our nation’s sports. The threat of American athletes withdrawing from international competition in particular sports may motivate the international governing bodies of those sports to rethink their embrace of gender ideology over reality. The U.S. might start a trend. Subsequently, other countries willing to exercise their sovereignty and protect women from men invading their sports could take similar steps to disallow “gender” self-identification in sports, thus increasing the pressure on the international governing bodies to return to biology and reject “gender” self-identification.
2. No Political Symbols on Team USA Uniforms or Gear
Congress could require the USOPC to decertify national sports federations that place any symbol or image other than the flag of the USA on team uniforms and player gear for the national team. This would mean, for example, that the U.S. Soccer Federation would have to stop coercing players to wear an LGBT+ flag on the national uniform or else be decertified as the national governing body for sports.
To make American sports great again, our teams should judge eligibility based on athletic excellence, not on willingness to wear activist symbols, such as the LGBT+ rainbow, to be allowed to play. Our national teams should represent the whole country; Team USA uniforms and gear should display our flag, not symbols of activist causes.
3. Drop DEI
Congress should direct the USOPC to return to its mission of sports governance by dropping diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) from its priorities. Currently, the USOPC proclaims on its website: “We are invested in becoming a DE&I leader in sport” and “our goal of diversity, equity and inclusion is to uphold our global purpose of building a better, more inclusive world through sport.”
Moreover, the USOPC invests its time and money into keeping “Diversity Scorecards.” It has an entire DEI department that “annually collects diversity data from the USOPC and National Governing Bodies (NGBs).” Its website explains, “Once the data is collected, we work with a consultant to compile more than 4,000 data points into unique scorecards” for the USOPC as well as the individual sports. Imagine the salaries of all those DEI staff and the DEI consultant and consider the unfunded mandate for the individual sports to track and report this data. That money could instead go toward expanding participation and supporting excellence in sports.
The USOPC webpage on “Transgenderism in Sports” leads with the headline, “We are invested in becoming a DE&I leader in sport by providing access and opportunity for all.” The committee uses its prioritization of DEI to justify Orwellian use of the word “fair,” proclaiming it “is not fair if athletes cannot participate or compete in sport because of their gender identity.” The USOPC enthuses, “we must never lose sight of the profound opportunity to foster a better and more inclusive world through sport.”
The mission of our national sports oversight body should be governing sports for the American people, scoring sports matches, not scoring DEI levels — not a “global purpose,” not social engineering for a “more inclusive world.”
Time for Trump and Congress to Act
President Trump said in his victory speech following the 2024 election that “it’s time to unite.” Continuing to allow the politicization of sports, and undermining merit in this vital institution of civic life, only further divides us. The status quo is unfair, and it fosters mediocrity. Should the USOPC fail to exercise the mandate Congress gives it, Congress could further clarify the responsibilities of the USOPC via legislation or even dissolve the committee altogether. Action now could salvage the integrity of our sports and of our culture, including when the U.S. is on the world stage hosting the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Refocusing American sports on competence and excellence by stripping the woke agenda from the USOPC and national sports governing bodies would help restore sports as activities that all Americans can enjoy playing and watching together. By pursuing these three simple, popular, and achievable goals, President Trump could help make America healthy again, make America fun again, and make America win again.
Jennifer Bryson, Ph.D., is a Fellow in EPPC’s Catholic Women’s Forum. Currently, she is translating the works of Ida Friederike Görres (1901–1971) from German to English. She lives in Lincoln, Nebraska.
