This past week we all watched as dozens of young female athletes surrounded President Trump as he put pen to paper on a new executive order protecting women's sports.
Trump called the order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” and fittingly signed it on National Girls and Women in Sports Day. It was a monumental sigh of relief for so many female athletes and parents around the country, but the response to it all spoke even louder than the signing itself.
The next day the NCAA changed its policy for transgender athletes and said the only people who could compete in women's sports were those who were assigned female at birth. The NCAA policy change begins immediately and applies to all athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews.
"We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions," NCAA President Charlie Baker said. "To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard."
The NCAA's decision, and President Trump's order was applauded by athletes from every spectrum of sports. Perhaps the biggest advocate for this movement was Riley Gaines. The former Kentucky swimmer, who watched first place be awarded to a biological male, and was forced to change in the locker room with him, was at the White House signing ceremony with Trump. Gaines posted on X "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,".
Gaines was not alone in taking to social media to celebrate the victory for women. Ex tennis great Martina Navratilova wrote "I hate that the democrats totally failed women and girls on this very clear issue of women's sports being for females only." Navratilova is certainly not a Trump supporter, but like many saw the injustice being done to women and backed the efforts of the President.
Swimmer Paula Scanlan, who was also forced to get dressed with Lia Thomas, called Trump "the saver of women's sports" and added, "It was a wonderful day. My favorite part was seeing so many young girls there, close enough to touch the shoulder of the president while he was signing the order."
Michele Tafoya, formerly of ESPN went to social media to talk about the iconic picture of President Trump surrounded by all the young athletes and asked " Hey, Mark Cuban ... remember that time you said Trump never stood on the same stage of a bunch of strong, powerful women?"
Clay Travis announced a victory say that "We won. A total victory" and went on to thank the President "for bringing sanity back to sports." Coach Tommy Tuberville also celebrated the victory saying that he was honored to be at the signing and that "We will restore title IX." Former MLB catcher Jonathan Lucroy spoke for all the parents who felt the victory when he wrote "My daughter is 14 and this makes me very happy. Fair competition"
The sports world rejoiced and it finally felt like we all could speak our minds again because of the new presidency. As a father of an athlete, and proud girl Dad, it had shook me to my core the past few years to hear about the injuries, unfair play and embarrassment that was being forced upon the female athletes as I only cringed at the thought that my daughter would have to suffer the same fate. This new signing, and new direction of the country to protect young women is not just a refreshing "win", but there is no greater feeling as a parent than knowing that your child is safe.
Unlike many politicians before him President Trump has delivered on one of his most important executive orders and like him or not he just made children safer. Like all of the sports personalities above I applaud this and applaud President Trump for delivering this so swiftly into his term.