Emily Bridges is told idea trans women have ‘no advantage’ in competition is ‘absolute NONSENSE’ by leading women’s sports lobby group… after British Cycling BANNED trans women from female events
- The organisation will instead change their current men’s category to ‘open’
- Bridges later shared a statement calling the decision ‘a violent act’ on Instagram
- The ruling likely to put pressure on the sport’s international federation, the UCI
A leading women’s sports lobby group has claimed previous rules for trans women competing in women’s sporting categories to ensure fairness are ‘absolute nonsense’ in the wake of British Cycling’s move to ban transgender women from racing in female competition.
The decision taken by the governing body is set to instead change their current men’s category to an ‘open’ category, where transgender women can compete against other male-born riders, while the female category will be reserved for those who were female at birth.
Set to come into effect at the end of 2023, the policy decision will apply to all competitive activity, and will put pressure on the sport’s international federation, the UCI, to firm up their own rules around the controversial subject.
British rider Emily Bridges, who has been at the centre of the debate for her attempts to race in 2022 after previously competing as male at junior level, posted a statement on Instagram in the wake of the news breaking that argued British Cycling were ‘furthering a genocide’ against trans athletes.
Speaking to GB News, Fiona McAnena – Director of Sport Campaigns at Fair Play for Women – said: ‘I think it’s about time that women had fairness in cycling. I think it’s taken a long time.
Fair Play for Women director Fiona McAnena has weighed in on British Crycling’s ban on transgender competitors in female categories, as did cyclist Emily Bridges
https://www.instagram.com/p/Css6I0RMFuI/
A post shared by Emily Bridges (@emilybridges45_)
Bridges (pictured left in August 2018 competing as male) had set a national junior men’s record over 25 miles in the same year. Now known as Emily Bridges, she was going to race against women including Laura Kenny in March last year but this was stopped
‘These rules were adopted so casually years ago to let certain males into the female category and it’s been quite a battle to restore what we all know with a common sense approach to sport, which is to say, if you are female if you’re born female and you don’t have the advantages of male puberty, then you need a protected category, otherwise, you’ll have no chance in sport.’
McAnena described claims that trans women had ‘no advantage’ as ‘absolute nonsense’, adding that the previous requirement for riders in the female category to have testosterone levels below five nanomoles per litre for 12 months did not ensure fairness.
She also stressed that Bridges was not ‘banned from competing’.
‘There are 16 or 17 studies now published around the world that show if you reduce testosterone in a male body, you diminish their performance a little bit, but you in no way remove the male performance advantage because not much changes when you reduce testosterone. And so that’s why an open category is a great solution,’ McAnena said.
‘Emily’s not banned from competing. Emily was a very good cyclist and was a junior GB record holder as a male and is free to continue to compete in the open category. And that’s how it should be. But it means that women and girls will not have their chances prejudiced by having to race against males.
‘So when people say there’s no evidence that Emily has an advantage or we need to do more science, We all know that you cannot reverse male puberty and so this is the only fair solution.
‘We shouldn’t be compromising female fairness and safety. Why are we starting with a compromise where we’ve got a certain proportion of males who are allowed into female events? What I say is there should be open events.
‘But if you advertise a women only bike ride, as British Cycling does, then it should be women only. And I think it’s a daft approach to take to say that as they have done that non-binary people are welcome in the women only breeze rides. Why would a non-binary person want to be in a women only event?
‘We hear from lots of women who have good reasons why they want to be in a women only event. And I think they should be allowed to have that. So no, there’s more work to do here to restore what is a reasonable expectation for women and girls?’
British Cycling defended their policy, with chief executive Jon Dutton outlining the ‘robust’ research that the organisation had carried out to come to their decision.
‘Our new policies are the product of a robust nine-month review process, which we know will have a very real-world impact for our community both now and in the future,’ Dutton said.
British Cycling chief executive Jon Dutton said that the organisation was ‘confident’ in their updated policy
‘I am confident that we have developed policies that both safeguard the fairness of cyclesport competition, whilst ensuring all riders have opportunities to participate.’
British Cycling’s ruling is the latest of a number of similar moves across different disciplines.
World Athletics, UK Athletics, World Aquatics, and British Triathlon have all carried out bans whilst opening up their men’s category.
Whilst no decision has been announced, in May British Rowing invited their members to vote on their preferred policy.
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