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news
National Cycling Centre (British Cycling).jpgUCI bars transgender cyclist Emily Bridges from debut as woman at National Omnium Championships this weekend
British Cycling has confirmed that transgender cyclist Emily Bridges will not now make her competitive debut as a woman at the National Omnium Championships in Derby this weekend, saying that the UCI has informed it that under current regulations, she “is not eligible to participate in this event.”
We will have more on this story in the morning. In the meantime, in a statement released this evening, the national governing body said:
At British Cycling, we believe that transgender and non-binary people should be able to find a home, feel welcome and included, and be celebrated in our sport.
Under the British Cycling Transgender and Non-Binary Participation policy, Emily Bridges was due to participate in the British National Omnium Championships on Saturday 2nd April. We have now been informed by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) that under their current guidelines Emily is not eligible to participate in this event.
We have been in close discussions with the UCI regarding Emily’s participation this weekend and have also engaged closely with Emily and her family regarding her transition and involvement in elite competitions. We acknowledge the decision of the UCI with regards to Emily’s participation, however we fully recognise her disappointment with today’s decision.
Transgender and non-binary inclusion is bigger than one race and one athlete – it is a challenge for all elite sports. We believe all participants within our sport deserve more clarity and understanding around participation in elite competitions and we will continue to work with the UCI on both Emily’s case and the wider situation with regards to this issue.
We also understand that in elite sports the concept of fairness is essential. For this reason, British Cycling is today calling for a coalition to share, learn and understand more about how we can achieve fairness in a way that maintains the dignity and respect of all athletes.
Within recent years, we’ve seen huge advancements in the science and testing around elite sports, the broader scientific and understanding of human biology, developments in protection provided by the law, and crucially a greater respect for the psychological and societal challenges of those who are transgender and non-binary. This is a complex area and by uniting, we can share resources and insights.
We know that some of these conversations are happening in pockets of the sporting world, but we want to encourage all sporting governing bodies, athletes, the transgender and non-binary athlete community, the Government and beyond to come together and find a better answer.
Across sports, far more needs to be done, collectively, before any long-term conclusions can be drawn.
Below is our original article, published at 1215 today.
A transgender cyclist who was once part of the men’s Great Britain Academy Programme, and who last month won a men’s race at the British Universities Track Championships, looks set to make her competitive debut as a woman against some of the country’s top female riders including multiple Olympic champion Dame Laura Kenny at the National Omnium Championships in Derby this weekend – although some competitors are said to be afraid to speak out about her potential participation in the event.
Emily Bridges, aged 21, revealed her struggles with gender dysphoria and the impact it was having on her, including depression and feeling isolated, in an article written for Sky Sports that was published on Coming Out Day in October 2020.
She started undergoing hormone therapy last year, and her testosterone levels are now sufficiently low to allow her to compete in women’s events under British Cycling’s Transgender and Non-Binary Participation Policy.
First published in 2020, the latest version of the policy was published in January this year following a consultation last summer that attracted 600 responses.
Transgender athletes are required to have testosterone levels below 5 nanomoles per litre for a year (men generally range between 10 and 30 nanomoles per litre) before being permitted to compete against other women.
Announcing the update, British Cycling said: “Our first Transgender and Non-Binary Participation Policy was designed to be as inclusive as possible, imposing only necessary and proportionate restrictions on eligibility to ensure fair and meaningful competition, based on the most relevant available guidance.”
The governing body said that it would “continue to follow the UCI regulations introduced in March 2020, which are based on objective scientific research and driven by a desire to guarantee fairness and safety within the sport … For this reason, testosterone levels remain the primary method of determining which members are eligible to compete in the male and female categories.”
It added: “While there has been much commentary on the effectiveness of testosterone-based measures, at the current time we do not have sufficient research or understanding to update this area of our policy in a way which is relevant and appropriate for our sport.
“However, we remain committed to moving with international bodies and scientific opinion, and supporting research efforts in any way we can.”
News of Bridges’ likely participation in Derby this weekend has attracted criticism within the media, with Owen Slot, chief sports writer at The Times, writing that should she beat Kenny – five times an Olympic gold medallist, two of those in the Omnium – this weekend, it would underline the unfairness of allowing transgender women to compete in female sports events.
Meanwhile, Olympic silver medal-winning former swimmer Sharron Davies, who believes that despite reduction of testosterone levels, transgender women retain an unfair physical advantage over biological females and should therefore be excluded from women’s sport, says that she has been contacted by women cyclists who are fearful of going public with their concerns.
“British Cycling ought to be ashamed of themselves,” she said, quoted on Mail Online. “I have had quite a few of the girls very distressed on the phone. They are frustrated and disappointed.
“They are all for inclusion but not at the loss of fairness and opportunities for biological females.”
However, Bridges’ mother Sandy, writing on Twitter, said that her daughter may have to have police protection at the championships this weekend.
“This is the reality of being trans today,” she wrote. “That my daughter has to be on a police operation plan to compete in a bike race in the UK. How in any way can that be #SafeToBeMe2022.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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301 comments
Oh, so when they held a survey, they should have ensured only JimM777 approved people get to vote? Don't want any "activist" competitors being able to vote about the future of their sport, oh no!
Hey Jim how about this as an even more efficient idea - why bother holding a free and open vote amongst the members, given YOU kniw the answer that shoukd have been given, only you get to,vote!
So where did I say I knew the opinions of others? I didn't, so please stop attributing claims to me that I did not make.
Like Brexit was supposed to be, the online form "vote" was only a consultation, not binding.
you claimed "activist" competitors "skewed" the consultation. You did so withiut a shred of evidence, then have the gall to suggest pointing out this failure on your part is somehow wrong?
I also didn't claim you knew others opinion. Only that you don't seem to agree with the result, have come up with spurious claims to deny the results validity withiut a shred of evidence, and so I was making an obviously numerous attempt to show you that approach of yours is logically absurd.
And you have not a sheer of evidence that the result was representative.
Anyway, as I've said on another thread, anyone reading a few of your posts can see that you are full of ****, so I'm done with trying to have a reasoned argument with you.
by "done with" what you mean is "I can't actually answer the points raised, so I'm going to flounce away instead"
I don't need to prove the result eas representative, you muppet. You're the one making the claim that there were "activist" competitors that skewed the result. That means you have the burden of proof. But, like your fellow transphobe sparrowlegs who made the equally absurd claim that a competitor deliberately underperformed, you don't have a single shred of anything to substantiate your claim.
You never started having a reasoned argument. You just spouted crap.
Honestly if articles like this, or more over the comments on them, do one thing. It is show that attititudes towards transgender, and indeed to some degree the wider LGBTQ+ community still have a considerable way to go.
indeed. The transphobia on display is pretty abhorrent.
It isn't transphobia, it is about what is fair and sporting, and what is not.
those people stating trans women are not women are being transphobic, by definition.
Sport is literally about being a genetic outlier. Define "fair" under this context. Also, prove there is a material difference being made.
Trans women are naturally stronger than biological women.
Explain to me why trans men don't compete against biological men. Once you have explained clearly, we can move forward. But you are just calling people out for being transphobic without reason. Please answer my question.
once you answer mine
- Define "fair" under this context
- prove there is a material difference
a generic statement which may or may not be true in specific is pretty useless, no? it is neither a definition nor is it proof of a material difference.
I've given my reason as to why a transphobe is being transphobic. Usually by simply quoting them.
It is unfair because a trans woman will be naturally stronger than a biological woman, hence has the strength advantage.
There is a material difference, a woman is born with a womans body which is completely different to a mans body. No matter what gender a person wants to be, they have the biological body they were born with. What they think they are cannot change that.
In your world, a transpohobe is someone that disagrees with you. Much the same as someone who disagrees with a person of colour is labelled as racist.
It is an easy get out to simply name call.
Your turn to answer my question now...
please define "biological woman" x you've just used the term, so I'm sure you can
a trans woman WILL be, or CAN BE? you have not defined "fair" yet, yet you have declared something to be unfair. Again, in a world of genetic outliers we call sportspeople, please come up with a systematic definition of "fair" that can be used to compare and categorise every sportsperson. Once you've don't that, you're able to make a statement such as "x is unfair compared to y" with authority, as opposed to mere transphobia.
Ah, you don't seem to understand the issue. I said prove there is a material difference. You instead made another unsupported statement claiming to be able to quantify a difference between a "man's" body and a "woman's" body, seemingly in all cases. Again, you seem to be labouring under the impression that science agrees with you. It doesn't. You've got a massive hurdle to climb, and so far you haven't even realised it's there.
No, you're not a transphobe b3csuse you disagree with me. You're a transphobe because you just made yet another transphobic comment - and you didn't even realise it.
Oh, and I DID answer your question. Happily proving you wrong. Even gave you a link proving it.
Now, thanks for proving our point. Bye.
oh and as your ignorance seems to know no bounds, trans men have competed against cis men. At the olympics no less. You couldn't even be bothered to google to see if you were spouting nonsense could you?
https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/transgender-athletes-to-watch
Thanks for chiming in and proving my point Phil.
But you are not claiming Phil is a transphobe? Can we confirm that?
I don't need to confirm anything to either of you. Maybe you recognise what you and others are posting is pretty toxic towards transgender persons and that's why you want me to tell you, you aren't being transphobic.
Maybe also go and look at the suicide statistics for transgender persons and consider the attitudes you both seem to want to validate and present, and how someone struggling with their identity feels when presented with such online.
I tried to draw out that element elsewhere, but got shouted down
while I'm a cis white male, as I'm gay I understand the need for visibility and the positive effect it has on myself and others to say representation in sports, the arts, government etc. I can assume, and know from speaking to trans colleagues and friends, that the same is important to them as well (shocking I know! 😂)
the toxic comments in here are just that - toxic. Sadly those posting it are unlikely to realise that, experience has shown, and will instead double or quadruple down on it, for example by stating the greatest thing a woman can do is give birth.
As ever with this topic, lots of opinion, much heat, very little light.
There was an interesting article in the Independent last week about a trans woman swimmer in the USA. https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/us-sport/lia-thomas-swimmer-transgen...
I realise some here will be scared by it due to the presence of facts, but it is worth a read.
It is also worth listening to/ reading Phillipa York's experiences.
My personal opinion, and you're welcome to yours...
In any sporting event where a man who wants to be a woman wants to compete against real women, the real women should just refuse to compete. It will end the debate overnight.
Wow, that's one load of transphobic nonsense there.
transwomen are women. That's not up for debate.
Your opinion; but unfortunately, and contrary to your opinion, anything is up for debate.
Which inevitably leads me to ask the question you already knew I was going to ask, and therefore have a perfectly prepared response for me...
If "transwomen are women", then what is a woman?
the existence of a person isn't a topic for debate. Last time this was tried was Germany 1939-1945. Not happening again.
this is a literally comparable situation as the decades of research into people who we would now recognise as trans was destroyed, and many people killed. Alongside many other people.
a woman is someone who identifies as a woman. Anything else requires you to create a biological definition of gender, that csn be agreed upon by the scientific community. No such definition currently exists .
lastly, as trans people are one of the most discriminated and denigrated members of society, deciding that the arbitrary historic split of men and women is a way to further decide they can be separate but equal better have a really good reason to stand. Not a single credible reason to do so has been given.
Ok. In that case I've just become a woman. Why? Because I say I am and neither you, nor anybody else can, by your own definition, argue with that.
By the way, simply screaming "transphobia" every time somebody disagrees with either you or the elimination of women from society and sport is lazy and won't scare me away. Believe me when I say that I really don't care what anybody does in society, how they want to dress, who they want to have sex with, what name they want to be called by etc. (as long as it's legal) but I will not stand by and nod in agreement with somebody who is a man one week and then decides to compete against women in women's sports the next.
Oh, and how do you have the nerve to compare the death of 6 million Jews in WWII to the argument against men competing in women's sports? You want to call people names and then compare a debate about sex affecting a minority within a minority to the holocaust? I would say you should be ashamed of yourself but, for you, I assume there is no greater problem facing the world today than so-called transphobia?
1) sure, if that's your belief. Why would I argue against it? I don't know your self, you do.
2) I'm not simply "screaming" transphobia, I'm correctly pointing out where transphobic comments have been made.
3) this isn't "eliminating women from society", and a large number of women, cis and trans, would heavily disagree with you that your fallacious attempt to speak for them is at all correct.
4) I'm not trying to scare you away. Just stating facts.
5) so with your completely pathetic attempt at belittling the competitor in question who has not decided to be a man one week and a woman the next, nor is there any evidence that this is actually happening, any chance your hyperbole laden spiel could have some actual facts?
6) How dare I compare the systematic extermination of trans people (including the destruction of the medical research and of course the abhorrent research carried out) to peoples atempts now to state that trans people aren't valid and don't exist? Sure, I can't see how that can be compared. And just because trans people are a "miniority within a minority" they somehow don't count? What about the gay men and women (et al) ? Are they small enough a number not to count? Cos if that's what you think you can sod off, the pink triangle is something I am proud to have helped reclaim.
And no, this isn't the worst thing in the world. But that diesnt exactly help you either - why are you bothering to post if it isn't that important to you? We're allowed as people to have concerns about multiple th8gs, personal and not so close.
thanks for confirming your are a transphobe. Bye.
It's just not working any more is it Nos? Pointing and screaming bad words at people so that you can have your way? Pasting retorts that were probably given to you in word document or from other forums. This isn't twitter, it's not an echo chamber, these are the views of real people. People with daughters that are engaged in sports and have dreams of one day holding aloft a gold, silver or bronze example of their hard work. People that are thinking if we don't stand up to this now, what could be left for our daughters when/if they do make it to the hallowed ground of local/national/international competition? If this madness is allowed to continue then what's the point allowing them to become just another Emma Weyant? They might as well give up now. Maybe that's why you're meeting more and more pushback when stories like this emerge?
sure, transphobe.
once people stop panicking and reacting to the dog whistling going on mostly by the members of the right, and realise that "sport" needs some pretty overdue reforms to stay relevant , it'll be alright in the end.
bye transphobe.
You still haven't answered my question though...
Do you think it's fair that a trans female compete, directly, be it in a pool, on a running track or on a bike, with a non-trans female?
Define a way to objectively measure fair and unfair. Oh, and define biological female please. You keep failing to do so.
You still dodge the question that everyone wants you to answer whilst rattling off round after round from the transphobe machine gun.
Like I said many weeks ago, competitors and spectators aren't going to stand there silently anymore whilst misogynistic people like you erode the hard fought rights of biological women. The tide is turning, we are witnessing it now.
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