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USA Rugby, the country’s governing body for the sport of rugby, announced Friday that it will introduce a new “open” gender division to accommodate trans athletes.
The new rule comes more than a year after President Donald Trump’s executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” and nearly seven months after the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s (USOPC) new requirement that all governing bodies comply with it.
“USA Rugby will now have three categories of competition; Men’s Division, Women’s Division and Open Division. The Open Division will allow any athlete, 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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Cassidy Bargell of the United States delivers the ball during a Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 match against Samoa at the LNER Community Stadium in Monks Cross, York, on September 6, 2025. (Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto)
The organization’s policy also apparently allows all aspiring competitors to simply choose their gender when registering, 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 gender identified at birth was female,” the organization’s membership policy states.
Gabriella Cantorna, Ilona Maher and Emily Henrich of the United States before a 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup match against Samoa at York Community Stadium on September 6, 2025 in York, England. (Molly Darlington/World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
“The determination of whether an individual is female can be determined through records from authoritative sources. Only USA Rugby has the right to dispute the individual’s status in the women’s division or challenge the presumption of an athlete registered as ‘female.’
In July, the USOPC updated its Athlete Safety Policy to indicate compliance with Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.
However, Trump has also pushed for mandatory genetic testing of athletes to protect the women’s category at the upcoming 2028 Los Angeles Olympics amid concerns over forged birth certificates allowing biological males to enter women’s sports.
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USA Rugby goal line flag before a match between USA and Scotland at Audi Field on July 12, 2024 in Washington, DC (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 common” in the United States, but suggested that the USOPC is exploring the possibility of using sex-testing options for its own teams and that he expects other world governing bodies to “follow suit.”
“It’s not necessarily very common to get this specific test in the United States, and so our goal with that was to help identify labs and options for the athletes to be able to get that test. And (it was) based on that experience and knowing that some other international federations will probably follow suit,” Finnoff said.
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