Washington, DC, Oct. 19, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Release
ICONS Seeks Justice as Transgender Proposal
Sinks Fairness in US Rowing
LAS VEGAS — The Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) is searching for justice for feminine athletes as USRowing insurance policies proceed to erase hard-fought positive aspects for equity in ladies’s sports activities by permitting organic males to compete in all classes for girls and women.
ICONS is deeply involved in regards to the proposed “USRowing Transgender and Gender Diverse Athlete Participation Policy.” The coverage, like the present one applied in 2016, perpetuates unjust competitors for feminine rowers and diminishes their worth and alternatives, mentioned Marshi Smith, an NCAA swimming champion and co-founder of ICONS.
“We urge the USRowing Board to overhaul their policy to keep opportunity in competition equal between males and females,” mentioned Smith. “Sadly, many don’t realize that without making the women and girls category exclusive to females, as USRowing has failed to do, they are overtly discriminating against their female athletes.”
This comes the week of the world’s largest three-day rowing competitors, the Head of the Charles Regatta, which begins Oct. 21 in Boston with some 11,000 rivals in 61 occasions the place organic males can compete in any division wherein they self-identify. Smith mentioned this violates the 2022 “Rules of Rowing” tips from USRowing, which deal with equity and explicitly state, “All rowers competing at a regatta shall at all times … compete fairly.”
The proposed USRowing coverage mirrors the not too long ago adopted transgender coverage of British Rowing, which was met with sturdy public outcry. British Rowing Chair Mark Davies, who opposed their very own new transgender coverage, mentioned it introduced British Rowing “in line with World Rowing” by allowing organic males who self-identify as ladies to compete within the ladies’s class. To assist his enchantment, Davies cited a latest scientific research demonstrating but once more that testosterone suppression does not eradicate the male benefit in muscle mass, grip power, or VO2 max, even after 14 years of hormonal suppression.
“In sports, fairness must take precedence,” mentioned Dr. Mary O’Connor, head of ICONS Rowing and a former US Olympic crew rower. “We want all individuals to be able to compete. Eligibility must be based on biology, namely sex. We have categories for age and weight also based on biology to ensure a level playing field. We must not create categories based on identities such as race, ethnicity, religion, or gender identification.” A champion of truthful competitors, Dr. O’Connor was a member of Yale University’s 1976 ladies’s rowing crew, which protested sports activities inequalities and was on the forefront of the Title IX motion to battle intercourse discrimination in school athletics.
As the USRowing Board of Directors continues to evaluate its transgender coverage, ICONS urges USRowing to observe Davies’ plea to World Rowing, and reverse the injustice to US feminine athletes by defending the ladies’s class for organic feminine athletes.
ICONS is supported by world-class athletes, dad and mom, internationally famend scientists, docs and well being care consultants, as nicely as attorneys, advocacy teams, and ladies’s organizations. You can study extra about ICONS and get entangled at www.iconswomen.com.
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