OPEN LETTER TO FIMS: Protect the Female Category – Biological Sex Must Be the Foundation
- Apr 23
- 3 min read
April 22, 2026
To: Prof. Fabio Pigozzi MD, Prof. José Kawazoe Lazzoli MD, Dr. André Debruyne MD, Prof. Eduardo H De Rose MD, Prof. Norbert Bachl MD, Dr Maher ZAHAR DDS-MS, Prof. Yung Shu Hang Patrick MD, Dr. Rafael Augusto Robles Cabrera MD, Dr. Khaled Massoud MD, Prof. William Oliver Roberts MD, Dr. Ana Virginia Cintron-Rodriguez MD, Prof. Minhao XIE MD, Prof. Klaus-Michael Braumann, Prof. Anca Ionescu MD, Prof. Pedro Manonelles Marqueta MD, Dr. Andrew Jowett, Prof Yannis Pitsiladis, Prof. Demitri Constantinou, Dr. Christian Schneider, and Dr. Maurizio Casasco MD.
Dear FIMS Executive Committee Members
The International Consortium on Female Sport has closely examined the FIMS press release issued on 17 April 2026. While FIMS acknowledges the importance of fairness, safety, and athlete welfare, we are deeply concerned that its heavy emphasis on further “evidence-based, sport-specific” research and “multidimensional” assessments risks undermining vital recent progress and unnecessarily delaying the essential protections now needed for the female category in sport — just as the IOC has begun to close the door with its SRY gene screening policy.
FIMS acknowledges that biological differences between males and females are “well described at the population level” yet immediately pivots to claim that “current scientific evidence does not support applying these differences directly” to transgender and DSD athletes. This is intellectually dishonest. Decades of peer-reviewed sports physiology, biomechanics, and performance data show that males retain massive, irreversible advantages in strength, speed, power, bone density, muscle mass, lung capacity, and skeletal leverage—advantages that hormone suppression cannot erase. These are not abstract population statistics; they are the reason female athletes are being displaced from podiums, scholarships, and safe competition every single day.
FIMS’s attack on the IOC’s use of a one-time SRY gene screen is particularly egregious. They assert that SRY “does not capture the biological and physiological factors that determine athletic performance” and “no established relationship exists between SRY status and performance.” This is flatly contradicted by the entire body of developmental biology: the SRY gene triggers the male developmental cascade that produces those exact performance advantages. It is a simple, accurate, once-in-a-lifetime biological marker—far more reliable than self-ID or easily gamed testosterone thresholds that FIMS once defended. Demanding “sport-specific validation” while females continue to lose is not prudence; it is paralysis by analysis.
Worse, FIMS hides behind “scientific uncertainty,” “biological complexity,” and ethical hand-wringing about genetic screening. Female athletes do not have the luxury of waiting for perfect data while their category is hollowed out. The evidence is already overwhelming and consistent across nearly every sport. The only “uncertainty” is manufactured by those who refuse to accept binary sex as the foundational criterion for fair female sport.
ICFS has always maintained that women and girls possess a fundamental right to a protected female category based on biological sex—those born female and who have not experienced male puberty. This is not exclusion; it is the same principle that justifies every other protected category in sport. FIMS’s proposed “collaborative approach” of endless studies, “multidimensional assessments,” and “sport-specific frameworks” is code for preserving the status quo of male inclusion under the guise of nuance. It prioritises the feelings and participation of a tiny minority over the rights, safety, and opportunities of the female majority.
We call on the IOC, International Federations, and sports medicine bodies to reject FIMS’s delay tactics. Implement the SRY-based policy decisively. Protect the female category on the clear, evidence-based foundation of biological sex. Female athletes have waited long enough for fairness. The time for debate is over; the time for protection is now.
ICFS stands ready to support any organisation committed to restoring truth and justice in women’s sport.
Yours in the service of safety and fairness for female athletes,
The Founding Members of ICFS
Email: hello@ICFSport.org
OPEN LETTER TO FIMS: Protect the Female Category – Biological Sex Must Be the Foundation
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