Pape (2020) states that 'efforts [by the IOC] to discursively redefine the female athlete body continued over the 1970s and 1980s, but rather than represent women as the athletic equals to men, proponents often conceded and endorsed notions of fundamental biological difference and implicit inferiority. Still, the IOC proceeded cautiously, not yet willing to fully abandon the association of athletic activity with potential harm to women’s bodies. Even advocates of women athletes regularly asserted that new opportunities for their participation should be conditional on medical approval, a requirement from which men had always been spared. As stated by an IOC member and chair of the Programme Commission during the 1981 Olympic Congress, “We shall further encourage women’s participation . . . provided that it is recommended from a medical point of view also”'.