International Olympic Committee forms ‘Protection of the Female Category Working Group’

A new working group to protect the integrity of the female category and its athletes was announced by The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Friday.

The Protection of the Female Category Working Group is one of four new working groups, said President Kirsty Coventry.

“As part of our ‘Fit For The Future’ process, I had announced that we would immediately begin the process of forming key working groups,” Coventry said. “The groups announced today are the start of that process. They will allow us to meet deadlines and bring important technical expertise to these complex and important discussions, while realigning where we feel that it is necessary to strengthen our Movement.”

Few details on the female category group were shared on Friday.

“The Protection of the Female Category Working Group will look at how we can best protect the female category. The group will consist of experts and IFs [International Federations],” the press release states. “The names of the members of the working group will remain confidential for now to protect the integrity of the group and their work.”

The other three working groups – The Youth Olympic Games, The Olympic Programme and The Commercial Partnerships and Marketing – published their chair persons and members, along with details regarding each area of focus.

The IOC’s announcement follows President Trump’s February executive order targeting men in women’s sports. 

“The Secretary of State shall use all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction,” the order read.

Trump called out sport-focused organizations that take no official stance and offer no guidelines regarding trans-identifying athletes. Other groups permit men who reduce their testosterone levels or present “‘sincerely held’ gender identity” documentation to compete against women.

“These policies are unfair to female athletes and do not protect female safety,” the order read.

Because of this, Trump announced he would “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”

Former NCAA All-American swimmer and women’s advocate Riley Gaines has spoken firsthand on this humiliation and violation of privacy. As a collegiate swimmer, she was forced to compete against and share a locker room with a male. Since then, she has challenged the NCAA, USA Swimming and the IOC on their transgender sports policies.

“I can attest to the tears that I witnessed from finishers who missed being named an All-American by one place,” Gaines writes on her website. “I can attest to the extreme discomfort in the locker room from 18-year-old girls exposed to male body parts and having to undress with a male watching in the same room.”

Gaines has not yet commented on the IOC’s new working group for the protection of women’s sports although she continues to highlight stories of the discrimination women face in athletics.

It takes courage to say there are two sexes,” Gaines said in a recent interview with Fox News.

In his executive order, Trump said opposing “male competitive participation in women’s sports” is “a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”