Dept of Education Demands NCAA Return Awards Given to Biological Men Competing in Female Sports

The Department of Education has just directed two top athletic organizations to return any and all awards, records, or titles given to biological men who competed in women’s sports.

The directive, which was given to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), is meant to comply with President Trump’s recent executive order banning men from women’s sports.

Trump admin demands NCAA return awards given to transgender competitors in female athletic events after prez’s executive order https://t.co/Ug2kfCW9J3 pic.twitter.com/1I5SZCHySo

— New York Post (@nypost) February 12, 2025

From NBC News:

The Education Department on Tuesday urged organizations overseeing high school and college athletics to strip records, titles and awards from transgender women who competed in women’s sports.

The department sent a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS)   calling on them to “restore to female athletes the records, titles, awards, and recognitions misappropriated by biological males competing in female categories,” according to a news release from the department.

Candice Jackson, deputy general counsel for the Education Department, said women athletes

“have for years been devalued, ignored, and forced to watch men steal their accolades.”

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“The Trump Education Department will do everything in our power to right this wrong and champion the hard-earned accomplishments of past, current, and future female collegiate athletes,” Jackson said in a statement.

The department added that “correcting the record” is consistent with the NCAA’s new policy prohibiting trans women from competing in women’s sports.

In practice, this means that “Lia” Thomas, the male athlete who unfairly won an NCAA Division I national championship in swimming against Rile Gaines — thus becoming the first so-called ‘transgender’ to do so — will be stripped of his title.

NCAA is being asked to strip Lia Thomas of all her titleshttps://t.co/56O3Lc2hdD pic.twitter.com/5iPwY8EgOq

— Mike Netter (@nettermike) February 13, 2025

Since President Trump’s executive order was signed, the NCAA has changed their ‘transgender participation policy.’

Riley Gaines calls it “vindication”:

The NCAA has officially changed their 'transgender participation' policy effective immediately.

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. pic.twitter.com/2USfSuZ6ij

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) February 6, 2025

The New York Post shared:

Controversies have erupted over transgender women — individuals who were born male — trouncing biological women in athletic competitions in recent years.

Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, 25, for example, had won an NCAA Division I national championship in 2022 for the women’s 500-yard freestyle.

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At the time, Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. Thomas had also tied in the 200-yeard NCAA freestyle for fifth with Riley Gaines, 24, who has since become a conservative star over her activism for protecting women’s sports.

Gaines had complained about having to share a locker room with Thomas.

Other examples include CeCe Telfer, who won the NCAA’s Division II 400-meter hurdles in 2019, and high school athlete Soren Stark-Chessa, who won a Class C South girls’ high school title and ran almost a minute and a half faster than the second-place contestant.

“We cannot undo the damage inflicted by years of policies and practices that have denied the material reality of sex,” Jackson added in her letter to the heads of the NCAA and NFHS.

“The Department strongly urges the NCAA and NFHS to take immediate action and require its member institutions to do the same: correct the records for all women’s competitions to reflect and honor the achievements of female student-athletes, and return to female athletes the titles, awards, and recognitions they earned and deserve.”