By controlling the purse strings and federal oversight, the Trump administration is upending participation in sports for trans women and girls across the nation—even at amateur and club levels.
Sarah Maywalt remembers finding herself mesmerized while watching a Canadian broadcast channel in the late 1990s. On the TV: curling– the quirky game that sees competitors propel a 40-pound stone across an icy court to try to knock an opponent’s marker out of bounds, while pushing a broom in its path.
“This was when cable was still cable,” Maywalt recalls of the days before Netflix and streaming apps. “I had grown up bowling. I thought, ‘I think I could do that!’”
Years later, when curling was part of the Winter Olympics in 2018, she got the itch to actually try it out, so she scouted out a curling club. “The Olympics reminded me of it [that year],” Maywalt said. “I thought, ‘Portland’s weird enough to have curling.’ So I tried and I failed miserably.”
Maywalt found a local curling facility in Beaverton–one of only two in the state.
She became a regular at Evergreen Curling Club, where she learned the art of sweeping ice and throwing stones, and eventually grew to help train new curlers in the basics of the game.
But this year, as curlers around the world convened to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Maywalt couldn’t bring herself to watch. That’s because the sport she grew to love had turned its back on her, in response to federal mandates from the Trump administration.
Maywalt, 47, is one of several athletes impacted by Trump’s executive order 14201 that effectively bans transgender women from competing in women’s divisions of any K-12 or collegiate level sport, as well as club-level sports that are overseen by a federally sanctioned governing body.
Despite studies showing trans women who receive estrogen as part of gender-affirming hormone therapy don’t gain any notable physical advantage in sports, the president effectively clawed back protections for trans women and girls with the stroke of a pen.
The order, issued February 5, 2025, cites “fairness and safety in women’s sports” and threatens to rescind all funds from educational programs that allow trans girls and women to compete. It also vows to “rescind support for and participation in people-to-people sports exchanges or other sports programs within which the relevant female sports category is based on identity and not sex…”
USA Curling is sanctioned by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC). Neither organization receives federal funding, but the USOPC is regulated by the federal government. The organization’s stance on transgender athletes morphed after Trump took office.
Evergreen, the local club, hosts a plethora of informal tournaments, called bonspiels, throughout its season. Though most who compete at the club level aren’t looking for Olympic stardom, regional and national competitive tournaments, like championships or qualifier events called playdowns, still follow USA Curling rules for men’s and women’s categories. Curling often includes mixed competitions that are open to all, but the new rules mean trans women can’t truly compete in the women’s divisions of any event beyond a bonspiel.
“I felt it was a place that I could go that I really felt that I didn’t have to think about [being trans] and that’s one of the horrible things; that’s one of the toughest things, is losing that.”
Sarah Maywalt
The sport drew major attention in February during the 2026 Winter Olympics, but the athletes competing for medals on TV represent a fraction of the curling world. Most who play are members of a local club, who, like Maywalt, seek fun, community and a chance to try something off the beaten path.
“I sort of liken it to a secular church,” she says, lightheartedly. “You have potlucks, you have special things, you get together. …But instead of religion, you’re coming here for this sport.” Maywalt says curling allowed her to build a community.
“I felt it was a place that I could go that I really felt that I didn’t have to think about [being trans] and that’s one of the horrible things; that’s one of the toughest things, is losing that.”
USA Curling has nearly 200 affiliate clubs, according to the organization.
Evergreen Curling, the largest in Oregon, has tried to distance itself from the Trump administration’s policies on athletics. The club issued a brief statement in response to questions from the Mercury, noting “Evergreen has not changed the policies of our club. All leagues and bonspiels organized by Evergreen Curling Club are open to all curlers, regardless of gender or gender identity.” The club points to its inclusion policy, as well as a letter posted to the club’s website from its board of directors.
“Evergreen Curling Club does not agree with USA Curling’s decision to wrongfully ban transgender women from competition. We believe our sport and our community are stronger when every curler feels welcome …” the letter states. The board said that while Evergreen understands the considerations that led to the governing bodies’ decision, the club “will not adopt or enforce any policy that excludes curlers based on their gender identity.”
Despite those policies, trans women are still barred from competing in national events and events sanctioned by USA Curling. Maywalt has challenged USA Curling’s compliance with the executive order.
“If this is complied with, they will ask for more,” Maywalt warned Dean Gemmell, CEO of USA Curling, during a virtual meeting between the two last July. “This is not gonna end here.”
She’s since stopped curling altogether in the wake of the new federal order. In fall 2025, Maywalt was essentially kicked out of Evergreen amid a dispute with the club’s leadership fueled by her protests outside the facility and her pushing the club to stop hosting USA Curling-sanctioned events. Emails reviewed by the Mercury suggest the club’s board felt Maywalt was violating the club’s rules of decorum and hampering their ability to grow the sport and recruit new members.
Maywalt announced in November that she was leaving the club, but stopped short of ending her membership. Club leaders assumed she was ceasing her membership and revoked her status. In a text message, she was told she was no longer welcome at the club as a member or guest for the rest of the 2025-26 season.
On a broader scale, she’s protested the national curling organization by rallying outside regional competitions dressed as a satirical MAGA character with a sign thanking attendees for “gettin’ the transgenders out of curling.” Each day, she sends a hand-written insult to Gemmell, the USA Curling CEO, on custom-made “We Belong” postcards printed with a trans pride flag background.
In an email, Gemmell told the Mercury that diverging from the federal mandate would upend USA Curling in its current role.
“Refusal to comply would result in decertification. Quite simply, that effectively ends the existence of an NGB [non-governing body] and it is why all NGBs across all sports have adopted policies that are in compliance,” Gemmell stated. He said the USOPC would assume oversight of Olympic and Paralympic curling programs and athletes, and USA Curling would lose sponsorship revenue, grant opportunities, and administrative support.
In light of the federal exclusions, USA Curling notified athletes last year of plans to introduce “new events that will provide meaningful competitive outlets for transgender athletes in the curling community.”
Maywalt doesn’t see it as a fix, calling it a “separate but equal tournament, more or less.”
She’s also skeptical of how USA Curling and USOPC will enforce the ban on trans women.
“They’re not actually going to check every woman who competes,” she notes. “They’re only going to check women who, for some reason, they think might be trans.”
Maywalt says, as she understands it, if a governing body requests a birth certificate and suspects an athlete’s birth certificate has been amended, they can utilize “other reliable facts.” What that means is unclear.
“In a way, it’s super disgusting, because they’re basically saying, ‘If you never, ever come out as trans, you might be able to play.’”
Maywalt’s fight isn’t unique. Other sports are also bound by the new federal order. Whether or not Trump’s executive order endures mostly hinges on two cases set to be decided by the Supreme Court–both addressing Constitutional protections for trans women and girls in sports.
