Olympic games

In threatening on Truth Social to withhold federal funding to California for allowing biological men to compete against women, Donald Trump was trying to restore fairness to amateur athletics. He was also setting the scene for a major showdown at the pinnacle of professional athletics: the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.The President on Tuesday cited a “transitioned male athlete” who had “won everything” as he warned Governor Gavin Newsom that funds would be cut if his executive order, aimed at protecting women’s sports, was not implemented.But in trying to make the state comply with his directive, he is also applying pressure to the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), which this week signaled it would sidestep the order.

When I was sixteen, my dad took me along to a conference he attended in Calgary just days after the city hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. By this time, the Eddie the Eagle and Jamaican bobsled T-shirts were all half-price, but everyone was still talking about the joke athletes that were the talk of the games. The International Olympic Committee wasn’t happy about it, though, and created what came to be known as the “Eddie the Eagle rule,” making it much harder for athletes to qualify for the Games. Since then, the number of ridiculously bad athletes competing in the Olympics has declined, but there are still dreadful performances to be found, and the Paris Games have been no exception.