WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — IMMEDIATE RELEASE

press release

ICONS seeks justice as a transgender proposal

Fairness is falling in US rowing

LAS VEGAS – The Independent Council for Women’s Sports (ICONS) seeks justice for female athletes, while USRowing policy continues to quash hard-won gains for fairness in women’s sports by allowing biological males to compete in all women’s and girls’ categories.

ICONS is deeply concerned about the proposed USRowing Transgender and Gender Diverse Athlete Participation Policy. The policy, like the current one introduced in 2016, perpetuates unfair competition for female rowers and diminishes their value and opportunities, said Marshi Smith, an NCAA swimming champion and co-founder of ICONS.

“We are calling on the US Rowing Board to revise its policy to ensure equal opportunities for males and females to compete,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, many fail to recognize that they are openly discriminating against their female athletes without making the women and girls category exclusive to women, as USRowing has failed to do.”

This is the week of the world’s largest three-day rowing competition, the Head of the Charles Regatta, which begins October 21 in Boston with some 11,000 competitors in 61 events, where biological males can compete in any division in which they identify themselves. Smith said this violates the year 2022 “rowing rulesUSRowing policies dealing with fairness, which specifically state: “All rowers participating in a regatta must at all times … compete fairly.”

The proposed USRowing policy reflects the recently adopted one transgender policy of British rowing, which was met with a violent public outcry. British rowing leader Mark Davies, who has opposed her own new transgender policy, said she has brought British rowing “in line with world rowing” by allowing natural males, who identify themselves as women, to participate in the participate in women’s competitions.