IOC boss Kirsty Coventry sets up panels to reshape Olympics, including one on women
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President of the International Olympic Committee Kirsty Coventry (centre) and her predecessor Thomas Bach (right) walking along the Seine river during the celebrations marking the first anniversary of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
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LAUSANNE – Kirsty Coventry, the new International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, is following up on her promise “to protect the female category” by setting up a working group on women’s sport.
The group was one of four panels announced to discuss the evolution of the Olympic programme, the future of the Youth Olympic Games, and the organisation’s commercial partnerships and marketing.
While the members of those three panels were named, those in the “Protection of the Female Category” group were withheld.
“The names of the members of the working group will remain confidential for now to protect the integrity of the group and their work,” said the IOC on Sept 5 when announcing the group.
The group “will look at how we can best protect the female category” and will consist of experts and international federations (IFs), said the IOC.
Coventry, the Olympic body’s first female president, signalled the creation of the group when she took up the role on June 23.
After the first IOC executive board meeting under her presidency, the Zimbabwean said she planned a “Fit for the Future” process and stressed that women’s sports would be one of the topics.
The IOC had previously left gender decisions to international sports federations, which are stepping up testing on athletes who have undergone male puberty or have the male SRY gene.
“It was agreed by members that the IOC should take a leading role in this and we should be the ones to bring together the experts, bring together the IFs,” she said. “We understand that there will be differences depending on the sport.”
She said she hoped a working group would find “consensus” on a policy.
“It was very clear we need to protect the female category but we need to ensure fairness but we need to do so with a scientific approach,” said Coventry, a double Olympic swimming gold medallist.
The IOC is also under pressure after US President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order in February, barring transgender athletes from competing in women’s sport in the US. It would apply to the next summer Olympics, which are in Los Angeles in 2028.
On Sept 5, Coventry said the four working groups “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”.
Among the three panels whose members were made public, the one on the Olympic Programme has the starriest cast and could reshape the Games.
It includes three multiple Games medallists: former middle-distance ace Sebastian Coe, who is head of World Athletics, former canoeing champion Tony Estanguet, who ran the Paris Olympic organising committee, and American sprinter Allyson Felix.
They will try to “find a balance between the size of the Games, the relevance of the sports and disciplines, the integration of new sports and disciplines, and... ways for sports to be added or removed”.
The programme panel will also examine whether “traditional summer or winter sports could cross over” and “the timing of the Games, and the sports calendar”. AFP
