Following years of consideration and exploration, the USATF Board of Directors on February 27, 2005, adopted the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) policy regarding competition by transgender athletes and transsexual athletes which was updated in November of 2015. (View the IOC's updated policies.) This policy requires that certain medical benchmarks be achieved before an athlete may compete as the opposite gender for medals, prize money and other benefits. The intent of this policy is to establish competitive eligibility and to help ensure fair competition. The policy also contains safeguards to protect the privacy of any athlete(s) making the request for eligibility. Each year in the United States, tens of millions of Americans run in road races, and millions compete in track and field. In most cases, entries for these races are at the discretion of the runner entering, and race directors rely upon the entrants to accurately provide their name, age, gender, nationality and other details. With more than 10 million road race finishers each year in this country, the vast majority of race entrants are participating in the road race experience rather than competing for awards and prize money. USATF’s mission is to drive competitive excellence and popular engagement in the sport. In the spirit of popular engagement, USATF encourages race directors and competitors to accept the entries at face value in instances where awards and/or prize money are not at stake. For any USATF competition or events operated using USATF rules as part of a USATF sanction and where age-group awards and/or prize money are at stake, an affected competitor(s) who has a valid reason to question the accuracy of the entry information of a prize- or award winning athlete may protest, either orally or in writing, against the prize- or award-winner with the referee during the respective meet, in accordance with the applicable rules for that event. If the matter cannot be immediately resolved, and all applicable appeals have been exhausted, the affected competitor may file a grievance within USATF, following the procedures described in Regulation 21 of the USATF Bylaws and Operating Regulations. In cases where an athlete’s gender is at issue, USATF urges that extreme care should be taken to respect the privacy of the parties affected at every step of the process.