Pape (2020) states that 'a reverse discrimination frame was invoked [by the IOC] in response to suggestions to establish a women’s commission, with the Executive Board stating in 1975 that a women’s commission “would be a form of discrimination”, and “both men and women should be treated equally, and there was [therefore] no need for a special commission consisting of women only”. In sum, in contrast with their acceptance of gender equity on the segregated sporting field, IOC leaders discursively constructed leadership privileges as earned through allegedly gender-neutral merit’.