Olympics-IOC to take lead in gender eligibility criteria, says Coventry
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) -The International Olympic Committee will take the lead in discussions on gender eligibility criteria in sports, its new President Kirsty Coventry said on Thursday, four years after the ruling body had urged federations to handle the issue independently.
Coventry, who officially took over the presidency from Thomas Bach this week following Monday's ceremony in Lausanne as the first woman and first African to hold the position, said she now wanted the IOC to "protect the female category".
She said a working group would be set up to take charge of those discussions.
The IOC has long refused to apply any universal rule on transgender participation for the Games, instructing international federations in 2021 to come up with their own guidelines, so there is no one universal rule for sport.
"We're going to actually set up a working group made up of experts and international federations," Coventry told a press conference following the first executive board meeting of her presidency.
She had also held a two-day workshop for IOC members this week to discuss key issues with them.
"It was agreed by the members that the IOC should take a leading role in this and that we should be the ones to bring together the experts, bring together the international federations and ensure that we find consensus," Coventry said.
"We understand that there will be differences depending on the sports. We should make the effort to place emphasis on the protection of the female category and that we should ensure that this is done in consensus with all the stakeholders."
Transgender athletes are currently eligible to compete at the Olympics.
Some international federations have rules in place but others have not yet reached that stage.
U.S. President Donald Trump has banned transgender athletes from competing in sports in schools in the United States, which civil society groups say infringes on the rights of trans people.
Trump has said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympics.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Ed Osmond)
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