Kt Coates

Katie Coates, known professionally as KT Coates, is a British organizer and standards advocate who transformed pole from a fragmented landscape of independent studios and competitions into a formalized international sport. In 2006, she surveyed the pole community about pursuing Olympic recognition; the International Pole Sports Federation reports that more than 10,000 people supported the idea. In 2008, Coates began working with United States organizer Tim Trautman, and in 2009 they co-founded the International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF). Rather than inventing pole dance itself—which had diverse performance, fitness, and community histories long before—Coates led the creation of institutional infrastructure to unite athletes, coaches, judges, and enthusiasts under a common competitive framework.

Under her leadership as president, the IPSF developed its first Code of Points and staged the inaugural World Pole Sports Championships in 2012, drawing 43 athletes from 14 countries. Youth competition launched in 2013, followed by a formal anti-doping program in 2014. These milestones reflected Coates's strategy to present pole's athletic demands and technical achievements to skeptical governing bodies and international audiences. The federation achieved World Anti-Doping Agency signatory status in 2016 and received GAISF observer status in 2017, the same year the IPSF introduced Artistic Pole and Para Pole disciplines, expanding beyond traditional competition categories.

Coates remained the federation's most visible Olympic-recognition advocate throughout the following years, including a 2020 public-radio appearance discussing pole sport's international growth and standardized rules. The IPSF later announced her resignation as president, acknowledging her role in developing pole and aerial sports as organized disciplines. Her work established codes, judging standards, youth and para pathways, and anti-doping structures that made pole legible as sport to international sporting governance, while also initiating ongoing conversations about what is gained—and what histories may shift—when a diverse dance practice is formalized under unified rules.