The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on March 19 presented Po-Chun Liu, an umpire with Baseball World Cup, under WBSC (World Baseball Softball Confederation), with the Women and Sport World Trophy, the highest distinction that IOC bestows in the category. In partnership with UN (United Nations) Women, IOC held an awards ceremony on the sidelines of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN headquarters in New York. Six role models and change-makers, who advanced women and girls in and through sport, were recipients.

Liu, from Southeast China's Taiwan, debuted, as an umpire, at the 2010 WBSC Women's Baseball World Cup, in Maracay, a city in Venezuela. She was featured in Forbes' 2018 list of the world's Most Powerful Women in Sports.

A passionate social worker, Liu works relentlessly to create opportunities for girls and women to get involved in sport, either in leadership roles or on the field, by organizing baseball clinics, workshops and international games. Liu's objective is to "strike out gender discrimination."

Thomas Bach, IOC President, congratulated the recipients. He said, "The Women and Sport Awards are very important because these personalities we are honoring have shown what can be achieved by empowering women and girls through sport. The awardees bring about change, not only on the field of play, but also in the workplace, at home, in schools and in other areas of society. Supporting such champions for women's empowerment is essential in our overall commitment to gender equality."

Introduced in 2000, the IOC Women and Sport Awards are given to individuals or organizations that have made remarkable contributions to the development, encouragement and reinforcement of women's and girls' participation in sport, be it access to the field of play, courtside, or in sports administration and leadership roles. Six trophies are distributed each year, one for each of the five continents and one at world level.

(Women of China)