IOC sets up women’s sport panel

New International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry made a move towards keeping her promise to “protect the female category” when she was still running candidate and announced that the global body has created a working group dedicated to the task.

The former Olympic swimming champion has made gender eligibility her priority since her campaign for the International Olympic Committee’s presidential seat, and has pondered introducing a blanket ban on transgender athletes from participating in the female category, a sentiment shared by several of her peers, including World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.

After Coventry was elected to succeed Thomas Bach, she underscored that she wanted the IOC “to take a little bit more of a leading role” in developing policies on gender eligibility. Currently, qualification is left up to sports federations to decide, leading to a myriad, and sometimes conflicting, policies. – Full report