Coaches

As a coach, the best thing you can do is advocate on behalf of trans athletes. If you have trans or nonbinary athletes on your team who are impacted by USOPCs decision , ask them how they want to be supported and take the time to listen. You can also talk to your gym managers to ask them write to USOPC, and encourage your gym to create inclusive policies for trans, nonbinary, and intersex athletes in local community competitions held in your facilities.

Send a letter to your gym manager:

To [your managing staff],

I was disappointed and disheartened to hear the news of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committees recent decision to comply with compliance with Executive Order 14201, banning trans women from competing in climbing competitions.

This executive order is based in partisan politics and ignores studies that have shown repeatedly that trans women do not hold inherit advantages in athletic competition. Furthermore, your compliance with EO14201 requires USA Climbing to violate Chapter 2205, Subchapter II, Section 220522, part 15 of the Ted Stevens Act which states that, “An amateur sports organization, a high-performance management organization, or a paralympic sports organization is eligible to be certified, or to continue to be certified, as a national governing body only if it … does not have eligibility criteria related to amateur status or to participation in the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, the Pan-American Games, or the Parapan American Games that are more restrictive than those of the appropriate international sports federation.

Because the international federation of Sport Climbing allows for trans women to compete, by removing trans women from competitions in our sport you are forcing USA Climbing to break federal law.

If possible, can our organization send a letter to USOPC to demand their reconsideration of this?

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
[your name]