First visa bans threaten LA28’s core values

Transgender and Cuban athletes, among others, are already feeling the heat of President Donald Trump’s wrath as many are reportedly being denied US access to compete, following orders from the federal government that jeopardise the upcoming Summer Games’ alignment with the Olympic charter.

Among its seven fundamental principles, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cites that "the practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have access to the practice of sport, without discrimination of any kind in respect of internationally recognised human rights within the remit of the Olympic Movement.  The Olympic spirit requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play."

Such grand proclamations, adapted through the years from the original text by the Olympic movement’s founder, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, have been put to the test many times over the IOC’s 130-year history and have often fallen way short of clearing the bar with flying colours. Though they now seem as under threat as ever with Los Angeles 2028 looming as a possible tipping point under the prying surveillance of Trump’s ultra-conservative administration and his personal twist-of-the-arm agenda.

First came February’s executive order barring transgender women from competing in female categories, a move recently endorsed by several candidates vying for the International Olympic Committee helm, like Zimbabwe’s representative Kirsty Coventry and World Athetics’ boss Sebastian Coe, who have been the most vocal in the "defense of women's sport."

After the swift flick of the presidential pen came, apparently, rapid-fire bureaucratic action from the administration that has, ironically, long advocated for a full-blown tear-down of what it deems unnecessary paperwork: Per a New York Times report last week, the US government has started instructing worldwide consular officials to deny visa applications made by transgender athletes seeking to enter the country in order to compete in sporting events "while also opening the door on lifelong blocks on visas for applicants who are judged to have 'misrepresented' their sex in their application."

Trump had rallied his (bureaucratic) troops well in advance when he proclaimed that "we won’t let this absolutely ridiculous matter tarnish the Olympic and Paralympic Games," hinting at visa restrictions, and his often-times-used bully tactics have seemingly started to work, as the head of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), Andrew Parsons, publicly advocated for a science-based approach just this week. "Protecting the female category is our top priority. I don’t believe in a single rule for all sports. Every discipline has its own requirements," he told the BBC before insisting on a fact-based approach regarding visa bans towards LA28. "We need to assess these measures and see how we can navigate any decisions that arise."

While transgender participation has rarely been an issue in Olympic history after such athletes were allowed to compete for the first time about two decades ago, the far-more-complex topic of gender eligibility remains a hot-button, unresolved topic that blew up in Paris 2024 with the boxing tournament’s gender row, misrepresented by certain political actors as a transgender issue, which the IOC was quick to label a misconception.

It is therefore far from surprising that the new mandate to clamp down on transgender athletes and foreign competitors from countries not deemed welcome by Trump is starting to have an effect. "The Trump administration didn’t prioritise visa processing in its first term. It really slowed it down, removing requirements to process visas quickly. So I can’t imagine that there’s going to be some full-court press to get these visas processed in a short amount of time," David J. Bier, Associate Director for Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute told The Los Angeles Times last month. "It’s going to be a massive problem. There’s no one paying attention to this at all."

Fast-forward to March, and that prediction has become an all-too harrowing reality on all fronts: on Thursday, the Cuban Basketball Federation denounced that its men's team was left out of the FIBA AmeriCup qualifier due to the United States’s refusal to grant them visas to attend a defining game in Puerto Rico, as part of a new restrictive policy against the island since the start of Trump’s second mandate.  Just two days before, Marco Rubio, the US head of diplomacy who Trump also tasked of making sure that he lets the IOC know "America categorically rejects transgender lunacy", had announced the extension of visa restrictions for people, who he said, "exploit Cuban labour," in particular doctors on missions abroad.

A Cuban Foreign Ministry official then confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the United States also suspended a "mechanism for applying for a group of visa categories", including "State officials and their dependencies", as well as professionals in "health, education, sports and culture."

The dual ban on transgender athletes as well foreign competitors from countries deemed unwelcome makes the US a tougher sell than ever when it comes to open-arms policies, even as organisers opt to look the other way and others, like FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who recently rubbed shoulders with Trump, openly state their desire to stage "the most inclusive Football World Cup ever" in about a year and a half.

While the IOC has publicly insisted that it intends to operate without political interference, an unnamed US official recently warned reporters that "if you are coming into the country and you are claiming that you are a woman, but you are a male here to compete against women, we’re going to be reviewing that for fraud."

After initially suspending consular services in Havana during his first term and a reactivation on 'a limited basis' during President Joe Biden’s mandate, Trump re-included Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism in January, forcing its citizens to travel to a third country to process tourist visas. "We have suffered with all these limitations that go beyond the sporting sphere", Cuban basketball official Dalia Henry told AFP, stressing that Washington's new provisions outline "a very hard future" for Cuban sport in the run-up to the Olympics, with the measure depriving athletes of competing on equal terms.

As with other pressing concerns regarding LA28 and the future of global sport, the IOC remains mum on such matters while it waits for the latest geopolitical map to unfold and its own new leadership to emerge with a plan come June, when current chair Thomas Bach will cede power to the candidate that comes out of March’s election. For now, only the adaption of Pierre de Coubertin’s written words apply, available for all to consult on the organisation’s official website.

"The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status," the Olympic charter clearly states regarding its seven principles.

The Guardian also recently reported that a Rubio directive had been relayed to embassies and consulates stating that "in cases where applicants are suspected of misrepresenting their purpose of travel or sex, you should consider whether this misrepresentation is material such that it supports an ineligibility finding."

While entry visas have already started being neglected, Trump’s 'Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports' executive order against transgender athletes simultaneously intends to rescind all funds from educational programmes that do not align with the new government’s policies.

"This is yet another action from the Trump Administration that makes it abundantly clear transgender people are squarely in their crosshairs, despite the fact that we are barely 1.6 percent of the population," Carl Charles, a senior attorney with the non-profit Lambda Legal, told The Athletic.

"Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will and mind. Blending sport with culture and education, Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example, social responsibility and respect for internationally recognised human rights and universal fundamental ethical principles within the remit of the Olympic Movement," the Charter states among his seven principles.

As for the seventh, LA28 organisers would be wise to take note: "Belonging to the Olympic Movement requires compliance with the Olympic Charter and recognition by the IOC," the text concludes.