Advocating for and empowering women and girls in sports
Driven by our passion for women’s sports, we are a nonpartisan non-profit advocating for and empowering female athletes.
It’s about fairness and integrity
Advocating for women in sport begins by granting women and girls both fairness and integrity. Without the principles of fairness and integrity, sport does not exist. At the most basic level, this can only be accomplished by limiting eligibility for the women’s category to female athletes. No woman or girl should face exclusion or loss of opportunity to a male athlete in any women’s designated event.
Our mission
The Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) recognizes that women and girls need a collective voice to stand up for the next generation of girls who love to compete. We are that voice. As we have watched the rights of women and girls erode in recent years, this network of former professional and collegiate female athletes, their families, and supporters is working to hold governing bodies accountable and ensure that female athletes do not have to stand alone.
Our founders
Co-founder
Marshi Smith
- NCAA & Pac-10 champion
- 15× All-American
- World Cup medalist
- University of Arizona Sports Hall of Fame
Marshi was a swim team captain at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Her achievements include securing NCAA and Pac-10 championship titles in the 100-yard backstroke in 2005, along with over a dozen All-American awards. Recognized for her excellence, she was inducted into the University of Arizona’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.
Transitioning from athletics to the corporate world, Marshi used her marketing degree to excel as an award-winning medical sales representative for leading medical device companies. After retiring from her sales career to focus on family, she co-founded ICONS, driven by her passion for fairness and integrity in women’s sports.
Her legacy at the University of Arizona and within the sports community reflects not only her athletic achievements but also her commitment to the principles of fair play and equality in women’s sports. The Virginia native now resides in Nevada with her husband and three children, the two oldest already embarking on their own athletic journeys.
Sports have completely transformed my life for the better. I’m deeply committed to protecting the future of women’s sports and ensuring that women’s rights are upheld for generations to come.
Marshi Smith
Co-founder
Kim Jones
- Stanford All-American, singles and doubles
- 3× NCAA runner-up
- World University Games
Kim played tennis at Stanford University, where she earned All-American status in both singles and doubles. She was a three-time NCAA Runner-Up, an NCAA doubles semi-finalist, and an individual finalist at the Singles NCAA National Indoors. Kim earned multiple Indoor Pac-10 titles in singles and doubles and National Indoor team titles. She represented the United States at the World University Games, finishing in fifth place.
Kim earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and has worked in both tech and agriculture. She has been a lifelong advocate for women in sports, serving on the Stanford Athletic Board and working with various sports organizations and athletes over her career.
Kim has four children who have all been collegiate swimmers.
Leadership team
Leadership Team
Chair, ICONS Rowing
Mary I. O’Connor, MD
Mary has been a leading advocate for fairness in women’s sports since taking part in the historic Yale Women’s Crew protest, heralded as the first stand for Title IX in college athletics. A national champion, World Championship bronze medalist, and Olympic rower, she understands firsthand the importance of fair and safe competition in empowering girls and women. Through ICONS Rowing, working alongside fellow advocates, she helped secure changes to World Rowing’s eligibility criteria to protect fairness in women’s rowing. She co-authored Fairness for Females and the Declaration for Fair Sport in World Rowing. She also contributed to the scientific and ethical discourse on fairness in sport, publishing an influential position statement on the need for sex verification in sport with leading sports scientists, medical specialists, and ethicists. An accomplished orthopaedic surgeon and academic leader, Mary is Professor Emerita of Orthopedic Surgery at Mayo Clinic and a former professor at Yale School of Medicine.
Listen: Fair Play for Female Athletes—Then and Now, Mary on the Quillette podcast, 2023
Treasurer
Alison Foote
Alison has actively advocated for fairness in women’s sports since 2021. The mother of two daughters, including an NCAA athlete, Alison was a gymnast and multi-sport high school athlete in swimming, water polo and cross country. Alison earned her bachelor’s in Philosophy and MBA at UCLA.
Leadership Team
Secretary
Evie Edwards
Evie Edwards is a lifelong competitive athlete, a multiple-time USA Cycling Masters National Champion and a UCI Masters Track World Championship silver medalist. A four-year NCAA Division II cross-country runner at Valdosta State University, she earned a Master of Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin and still competes at the highest domestic level as a Category 1/2 cyclist in gravel and cyclocross. Over the past seven years she has raced against at least eight male athletes in women’s cycling events, and she was among the earliest voices publicly advocating for female-only competition, working at the local, state and federal levels. A mother of two nationally competitive young athletes, she believes every generation of girls deserves meaningful opportunities to compete, succeed and pursue athletic excellence.
Leadership Team
ICONS Rowing
Val McClain
A coxswain, Val made the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, kept from Moscow by the U.S. boycott, and finished fourth at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She won three World Championship silver medals. At Cal she coxed both the women’s and the men’s crews: coxing the men to an undefeated season in 1979 made her the first woman to earn a Big C letter in a men’s sport at Cal, and at Henley that year she became the first woman to race in the Grand Challenge Cup. She is in the California Athletics Hall of Fame.
Leadership Team
ICONS Soccer
Carly Smolak
Carly Smolak was a four year starting goalkeeper for the Stanford University women’s soccer team, where she earned All Pac-10 Academic team honors, helped lead the team to three playoff appearances, and a Pac-10 Championship in 1999. She was selected in the inaugural draft for the Women’s Professional Soccer Association in 2001, where she tended the nets for the San Diego Spirit and New York Power. She is also a decorated Australian Rules Football player in the United States Australian Football League, winning four National Championships as a player and coach of the San Francisco Iron Maidens, including earning two National MVP awards as a center-half forward. In addition to club football, she represented the USA Freedom National Team in the International Cup in Australia in 2017. Smolak was named to the USA Freedom National Team 25th Anniversary All-Star Team.
Watch: Carly’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, September 23, 2026
Who stands with us
Organizations working alongside ICONS for fairness and safety in women’s sports.
Watch