On July 21–23, hundreds of attendees gathered at Golden, CO for the second annual International Women’s Sports Summit organized by ICONS, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports.

Though the attendees came from a diverse set of backgrounds, they were united by gratitude for ICONS co-founders Kim Jones and Marshi Smith, and their team, who organized this outstanding event at a critical time in the history of women’s sports.

“Whatever our beliefs, politics, life experiences, we are all here to speak on behalf of women and girls,” Kim Jones explained.

The panels were a star-studded lineup packed with champion athletes, Olympians, scientists, doctors, lawyers, and advocates. With 19 hours of multidisciplinary talks by decorated professionals, summarizing the information presented is a challenge. Luckily, all panels were live-streamed and are available to watch on ICONS’s website, iconswomen.com.

Talks generally fell into three categories: accounts from female athletes drawing from history, personal experience, and careful study to illustrate the importance of sex-based protections in women’s sports; research presented by scientific, legal, and policy experts to combat misinformation; and observations on the current state of women’s sports, including strategies to change the tides.

Among the athletes represented were four-time SEC champion swimmer Riley Gaines, who was joined by other swimmers forced to compete with and share a changing room with Will Thomas (called Lia Thomas when pretending to be a woman), two-time NCAA champion Kylee Alons and UPenn swim team member Paula Scanlan. These young athletes stood in solidarity with decorated former Olympians such as Donna deVarona, Sharron Davies, Lorraine Moller, Mara Yamauchi, Nancy Hogshead, and Mary O’Connor to protect women’s right to a fair competition.

“We felt we didn’t matter enough to speak up,” Jen Sey said, speaking of women’s fear to challenge leaders who colluded to keep pedophile gymnastics coaches from losing their jobs. This sentiment was echoed by many other athletes, who concluded that taking a firm stance on this issue was important, and that their experience with sports taught them they could be brave here as well. “If I can speak truth, you can too,” Sey told the audience.

Much of Saturday’s lineup was dominated by the scientists and researchers: information-rich presentations given by well-known experts. Jen Sey’s talk was followed by Jon Pike, a philosopher; Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist; Ross Tucker, an exercise physiologist; Pamela Paresky, a psychologist; Dina McMillan, a social psychologist, and Greg Brown, a kinesiologist. Several additional PhD holders spoke on Friday and Sunday: Helen Joyce, a journalist; Carole Hooven, an evolutionary biologist; Linda Blade, a coach and kinesiologist; Suzanne Vierling, a clinical psychologist; Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist; and WoLF’s own representative, Board Secretary Liz Fedak. (Notably, Joyce and Fedak both hold PhDs in mathematics, but neither got to talk about math.)

“Being afraid to speak is not freedom. Being untruthful is not kind. Being coerced is not consent.” 

Though their talks were professional and informative, the experts were clearly exasperated with having to defend such basic concepts. “How is this my life?” Helen Joyce asked during her panel, adding, “We are not clownfish.” Ross Tucker observed, “Very few people have said they want to be here.” Sensing that Colin Wright might want to do something other than give people “the talk” for once, when WoLF’s representative sat behind him on a car ride, she opted to ask about his dissertation instead.

Talks about the current state of women’s sports and how to fix it included the Language and Policy panel, populated by Kara Dansky of WDI USA and Hadley Manning of Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), as well as Rowena Edge, who came all the way from New Zealand. This panel stressed the importance of accurate language in defending sex-based protections, and encouraged people to properly acknowledge an individual’s sex when they are able. When asked about concessions to acknowledge a student’s “gender identity,” Dansky asked, pointedly, “What does ‘identifying as a gender’ mean to you?”

Of course, one of the strategies for change involves passing the Women’s Bill of Rights, co-authored by WoLF and IWV. Hadley Manning, IWV’s Vice President for Policy, presented this model legislation. The Women’s Bill of Rights defines sex in state laws based on biology, codifies “intermediate scrutiny” to ensure that women are treated fairly by courts interpreting sex discrimination laws, and protects the ability to collect data on sex. The bill was passed in Kansas with bipartisan support earlier this year. 

During Sunday’s first presentation on the international state of sports, Ro Edge of ICFS made a chilling observation. “They won’t do anything until a woman is disabled or killed.” This, more than any other comment, drove home what is at stake if Title IX protections are removed.

If you have time to watch one panel, “What’s At Stake?” (Minute marker 50:15 on Day 1) comes highly recommended. Helen Joyce, Carole Hooven, and Linda Blade neatly lay out the importance of defending women’s sports, setting the tone for the rest of the conference.

“Beyond Elite—This One’s for the Girls” would be an excellent second choice (7:45:50 on Day 2). In the first half, Greg Brown piled evidence onto a growing mountain that boys have an athletic advantage even before puberty, making for an engaging presentation. Only Mara Yamauchi could follow him, giving a compelling talk on the importance of sport for women at all levels that many attendees said was their favorite out of the whole conference.

“No elite athlete is born elite,” Yamauchi said, speaking to the importance of empowering young girls and burgeoning athletes, “we all start as beginners, as children, and work our way to the top.”

The audience mingled between panels. Women happily approached each other regardless of politics or affiliation. Among the non-speaking attendees were the organizers of SF TERF Central, artist Nina Paley, women’s sports advocate Barbara Bull, and coach Maureen Monte. Many of the athletes present were members of special groups within ICONS, such as rowing and tennis.

While shuffling between tables, WoLF’s representative, Dr. Liz Fedak, carried a binder of WoLF’s key court filings starting with the Hecox v. Little amicus brief in 2020. It came to a whopping 679 pages.

“This is the brick that should have been thrown at Stonewall,” Fedak said.

WoLF spoke on Day 3, (Liz Fedak starts at 4:50:44)at the second-to-last panel on the recent proposed changes to Title IX. First to speak was Nancy Hogshead, JD, OLY, the CEO of Champion Women and a practiced expert with a lifelong dedication to protecting Title IX. “In order to give girls and women equal opportunities in sport, they need their own team,” she said, echoing 50 years of women’s sports activism.

Dr. Fedak sat next to Doreen Denny, MPP, of Concerned Women for America (CWA), an organization that shares WoLF’s dedication to protecting women’s single-sex spaces. WoLF and CWA have co-authored amicus briefs in support of girls’ sports and free speech for attorneys. In a time where the country is deeply divided, the sight of two women’s groups with starkly different ideologies working together to protect women’s and girls’ sex-based rights stood out as a sign of hope. 

During her panel appearance, which starts at 4:50:44 in the Day 3 video, Fedak gave a brief definition of radical feminism before describing what is at stake if “gender identity” is allowed to subsume sex in Title IX.

“[Redefining sex as “gender identity”] is not taking away the reality of what we experience. It's taking away our ability to advocate for ourselves. That's why we have to hold the line and say, ‘You can't have our protections.’ For any of these changes—the first day one executive order, any of the notices of proposed rulemaking—what they do is remove our ability to advocate for ourselves and to say ‘no.’ And that is unacceptable.”

Citing WoLF’s Letters from Incarcerated Women initiative, Fedak quoted a letter from a woman who lived in constant fear from being incarcerated with a man. “He is a known rapist,” the anonymous woman wrote. “He tried to kiss me. I pulled back and fell. He got on top of me and said this would be easier if you were a lot nicer.”

Fedak said, “When they tell us to be kind and accepting, this is what they are telling us to accept.”

WoLF’s slide described a brief history of our work protecting Title IX. Due to its status as one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation for women and girls, whenever a new attempt to roll back Title IX is made, WoLF has been there to oppose it.

Recent WoLF Title IX Actions

• February 2021: WoLF submits petition for proposed rulemaking in response to President Biden’s day-one executive order.

• April 2021: The Department of Education responds to WoLF’s petition, declining to propose regulations.

• June 2021: WoLF speaks at a hearing and submits public comments on Title IX.

• September 2022: WoLF submits public comment on new NPRM.

• May 2023: WoLF files opposition to second NPRM.

“I am honored to have represented WoLF at this event,” Fedak said later. “Everyone I met was incredible; I could spend hours listening to the stories of every woman there. Thank you very much to ICONS for organizing!”

While there is still much to be done, the ICONS 2023 International Women’s Sports Summit represents great progress in fighting back against the dissolution of women’s sex-based rights, and has united stakeholders across the globe to act as catalysts for change. As Jennifer Sey said to raucous applause, “When people ask, ‘Why is this the hill you’re willing to die on?’, I ask, ‘Why aren’t you?’”