INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry seeks consensus among sports regarding the protection of the female category with competition fairness as the foremost priority.
Coventry announced after her June election that the IOC would lead discussions on gender eligibility criteria following four years of federations handling the issue independently.
The IOC recently established a Protection of the Female Category Working Group comprising experts and international sports federation representatives to address this matter.
“I would like for the IOC to bring everyone together to find consensus that we can all implement,“ Coventry told reporters in Tokyo on Saturday.
She emphasised that any solution must ensure fairness and protect the female category above all other considerations.
The working group held its first meeting last week with Coventry expecting a debrief in the coming weeks.
The IOC’s 2021 guidelines on Fairness, Inclusion and Non-Discrimination previously suggested federations prioritise inclusion of gender non-conforming athletes in their chosen category.
Despite these guidelines, several Olympic sports have banned athletes who underwent male puberty from elite female competition in recent years.
Boxing and athletics introduced mandatory SRY gene tests this year for female category athletes to detect Y chromosome presence.
These measures target athletes with Differences of Sexual Development who were raised female but may possess male physical advantages.
Coventry suggested there might not be a universal solution since sports have different requirements and considerations.
She noted that in equestrian sports, men and women already compete together making the issue less significant.
The working group aims to find consensus on protecting the female category while recognising sport-specific differences. – Reuters
