ICONS Seeks Justice as Transgender Proposal Sinks Fairness

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 seeking justice for female athletes as USRowing policies continue to erase hard-fought gains for fairness in women’s sports by allowing biological males to compete in all categories for women and girls.

ICONS is deeply concerned about the proposed “USRowing Transgender and Gender Diverse Athlete Participation Policy.” The policy, like the current one implemented in 2016, perpetuates unjust competition for female rowers and diminishes their value and opportunities, said 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,” said 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 competition, the Head of the Charles Regatta, which begins Oct. 21 in Boston with some 11,000 competitors in 61 events where biological males can compete in any division in which they self-identify. Smith said this violates the 2022 “Rules of Rowing” guidelines from USRowing, which address fairness and explicitly state, “All rowers competing at a regatta shall at all times … compete fairly.”

The proposed USRowing policy mirrors the recently adopted transgender policy of British Rowing, which was met with strong public outcry. British Rowing Chair Mark Davies, who opposed their own new transgender policy, said it brought British Rowing “in line with World Rowing” by permitting biological males who self-identify as women to compete in the women’s…