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USA Rugby, the national 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 “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports” and nearly seven months after the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) new requirement for all governing bodies to comply.
“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 contact or non-contact,” the organization said in a statement.
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Cassidy Bargell of the United States passes 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 any hopeful competitors to simply select their gender upon registration, with possible investigation by officials.
“Division status will be determined during the membership application and registration process, when an athlete selects the ‘gender’ option in Rugby
“This representation creates a rebuttable presumption that the sex of the individual identified at birth was female,” the organization’s membership policy states.
Gabriella Cantorna, Ilona Maher and Emily Henrich of the United States before a Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 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 may be established through records from authorized sources. Only USA Rugby will have the right to challenge the individual’s Women’s Division status 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 executive order “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports.”
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 about falsified birth certificates that allow biological men access to women’s sports.
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The USA Rugby goal line flag before a match between the United States 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 SRY genetic testing used by World Athletics and World Boxing is “not common” in the U.S., but suggested that the USOPC is exploring options to employ sex testing options for its own teams and that he hopes other global governing bodies “will do the same.”
“It’s not necessarily very common to get this specific test in the United States and so our goal was to help identify labs and options for 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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