IOC President Coventry Plans Working Group on Female Category Protection

Kirsty Coventry, the new International Olympic Committee (IOC) President and the first woman and African to hold the position, announced that the IOC will take a leading role in establishing gender eligibility criteria in sports to protect the female category. After years of the IOC deferring to international federations on transgender participation rules, Coventry revealed plans to form a working group composed of experts and federations to create a consensus on this sensitive issue. This move follows controversies such as the case of athletes Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting, who won gold medals despite past disqualifications related to gender eligibility concerns. Coventry emphasized that the group’s work will focus on fairness and protecting female athletes without affecting past competitions. The IOC members showed unanimous support for this initiative during workshops held early in Coventry's presidency. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has maintained a ban on transgender athletes in school sports, a policy criticized by civil rights groups as discriminatory against trans people.