United States: Trans Women Barred From Women’s Climbing Competitions
- Pierre-Gaël Pasquiou
- Mar 4
- 4 min read
In the United States, trans women are now barred from every women’s category in competitions sanctioned by the national climbing federation. Not after a sweep of podiums. Not after some slam-dunk scientific report. But after a political order from the top.
Climbing—this sport that loves to imagine itself outside the world—just got yanked into a culture fight that has nothing to do with a simple rulebook debate.
In a gym, pulling a hold is how you reset and set something new. But when the “hold” you remove means shutting down an entire lane and a spot on the start list, that’s not setting. That’s exclusion.
This summer, that’s exactly what happened to trans women climbers in the U.S. In a curt email, the USOPC (the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee) directed every national governing body to bar trans women from women’s categories. USA Climbing—after eighteen months working closely with trans climbers on an inclusive policy that was nearly finished—had to shove it in a drawer.
Not because anything had “gone wrong” at a competition. But because a presidential directive said so. And in Olympic-style American sport, politics isn’t in the background. It’s the head coach.
“Keeping men out of women’s sports”
In the American sports hierarchy, a national federation is tied to the USOPC the way a rope is tied into an anchor—your whole system depends on it. That tie is official certification and elite-sport funding. If the USOPC cuts the rope, the federation takes the fall.
In February 2025, Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14201, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”—a policy framed as protecting women’s competition by systematically excluding trans women. Two words do all the work: Executive Order. This isn’t guidance. It’s a federal directive, and the USOPC’s job is to apply it across its affiliated federations.
Refuse, and you risk losing recognition and funding—an administrative death sentence. USA Climbing, which was preparing an inclusive policy aligned with IFSC criteria (testosterone under 10 nmol/L for twelve months), was forced to abandon the work.
Executive Order 14201
Signed: February 5, 2025, by Donald Trump.
Purpose: Exclude any trans woman from women’s competitions in sports governed by USOPC-recognized national federations.
Mechanism: Compliance required to keep certification and funding.
Scope: Every discipline—from basketball to curling… and now climbing.
Climbing didn’t have this “problem”
Part of why this lands so hard is that climbing didn’t have a high-profile, messy precedent around trans women’s participation. To date, no American trans woman has competed in an IFSC World Cup, or in an elite national championship, or cleaned up podiums. The “problem” this rule claims to solve didn’t exist in this sport.
And even on performance, the usual argument about a massive physical edge doesn’t map cleanly onto climbing. The men’s/women’s gap is smaller here than in many measured sports.
Look at the outer limits:
Roped climbing: the women’s benchmark is 9b+—Excalibur by Brooke Raboutou (about 5.15c). The men’s benchmark is 9c (about 5.15d).
Bouldering: the women’s benchmark is 8C+—Katie Lamb (roughly V16, with 8C+ noted once). The men’s benchmark is 9A (roughly V17).
Some iconic lines were first climbed by women before men repeated them—Meltdown (8c+/9a, about 5.14c/5.14d) put up by Beth Rodden, and Lynn Hill’s one-day free ascent of The Nose. In other words: the glass ceiling is real, but it’s cracked—and sometimes people punch right through it.
Exclusion before evidence
The International Olympic Committee recommends restricting participation only when there’s robust evidence of a disproportionate advantage that’s specific to the discipline. Plainly: if climbing could show trans women win reliably because of a clear, decisive physiological edge, then yes—rules could be debated on that basis.
But that isn’t what’s happening here. No published study. No statistical record showing a huge imbalance in this sport. What’s driving the decision is a theoretical fear—and, more than that, a political signal. The implicit message is: whether the problem exists or not, we’re going to show we’re “fixing” it.
It’s like installing a lightning rod on a blue-sky day. The consequence is immediate and concrete: a precedent where exclusion comes first, and proof is optional. In the current U.S. cultural climate, that sequence isn’t an accident. It’s the point.
How does enforcement even work?
Once the rule exists, you still have to enforce it. Right now, USA Climbing does not verify participants’ gender identity. Tomorrow, will they require medical letters? Hormone test results? And who collects that data, stores it, protects it?
Here’s the problem: American sports federations are not bound by medical confidentiality. There’s no guarantee that a document submitted for a competition won’t be accessed or exploited by local authorities—especially in states where gender-affirming care is being criminalized. That means a trans woman climber could face legal risk simply by registering for a sanctioned event.
And then there’s the part no rulebook can capture: gym culture. In climbing, people size you up by how you climb—your try-hard, your commitment—not by what’s on a form. Like that final where a trans woman competitor, frozen by the fear of actually winning, heard her rivals yell, “Go for it.” That kind of solidarity can’t be outlawed by a federal directive.
Cracks in the wall
Not everything is locked down. Local competitions that aren’t run by USA Climbing can still welcome whoever they choose. Groups like Trans Climbers Belong are holding onto the inclusive policy written over the last two years, ready to deploy it if and when the opening appears.
And above all, there’s still the everyday culture of the gym—the one where performance is measured by the willingness to try, not by the sex marker on a certificate. That bond is the one thing no federal memo can strip off the wall.
Timeline :
September 2023: USA Climbing publishes a first trans policy (testosterone < 5 nmol/L for 12 months).
November 2023: After criticism, the policy is suspended; a working group is formed with trans athletes.
February 2025: Donald Trump signs Executive Order 14201.
June 2025: The USOPC incorporates the order into its official policy.
July 2025: USA Climbing announces a total ban in women’s categories for sanctioned competitions.
October 2025 (planned): Enforcement details to be published ahead of the Youth Series.
