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news
Nicole Cooke-Focus_9210Nicole Cooke calls for separate category for transgender cyclists
2008 Olympic gold medallist Nicole Cooke has called on sport’s governing bodies to create a separate category for transgender athletes.
Cooke’s comments come after Emily Bridges was barred from competing in the female category at this weekend’s National Omnium Championships in Derby. Bridges was set to make her racing debut as a female cyclist at the championships after revealing her struggles with gender dysphoria in 2020 and beginning hormone therapy last year.
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.
However, British Cycling revealed on Wednesday that it had been informed by the UCI that “under their current guidelines Emily is not eligible to participate” at the championships in Derby.
> Transgender cyclist Emily Bridges breaks silence to question “alleged ineligibility”
Despite being a national event, the championships are UCI-controlled – with the results counting towards international rankings points – so Bridges could only race once her eligibility to compete as a female in international competitions is confirmed; a process which is, thanks to the UCI’s complicated procedures, still ongoing.
While Bridges and British Cycling were under the impression that she was to give six weeks’ notice before competing in her chosen event – as long as the required 12 months of reduced testosterone treatments were completed – the UCI actually needs at least six weeks to consider the evidence before granting permission to race, owing to the delay in Bridges’ case.
Writing in the Times this weekend Pippa York, who won the mountains classification at the Tour de France in 1984 as Robert Millar, said: “Her eligibility hasn’t been stamped on by the UCI under the guise of fairness or the laxity of British Cycling — in fact it’s due to the UCI’s complicated process and an unnecessary delay of six weeks to process an email containing the information the governing body requires.
“And even more poignantly, she’s been giving the UCI what it ought to have been looking for in the first place [including numerous blood tests and power data]. Not just a doctor’s note.”
York criticised the “toxic environment” which surrounds Bridges’ case and the position of transgender athletes in sport, which according to her includes “endless talk about trans women invading sport, taking girls’ places, erasing them, denying them a future… Framed as concerns, fairness, safety.”
The former pro, who publicly announced her own transition in 2017, wrote: “Emily isn’t a threat to women’s sport and she isn’t cheating anyone out of their place.
“She’s making her way into womanhood through a different path, which is incredibly difficult even when you negotiate it in private, so to do so in the glare of all the attention she is under is remarkable.
“What’s really galling in talking about this issue is that while everyone is crowing about fairness, safety and all the other stuff, there is a young woman — Emily is 21 — negotiating a medical process that will bring her peace in who she is. She has so many things to learn in so little time.”
While York criticised those who oppose Bridges’ involvement in women’s sport framing the case as an issue around fairness, Cooke claimed this weekend that a separate category should be created for trans women in order to ensure “fair competition”.
Writing in the Daily Mail, the former world champion claimed that “We need a way forward before the count of fractured young women, whose sporting dreams have been smashed by losing in an unfair competition they cannot win, rises to an unacceptable level.”
Referring to York, one of her childhood heroes, Cooke wrote: “Sport centres on fair competition among equals. Ask a welterweight which he would be more proud of – ten wins against a flyweight or one against another welterweight.
“If my cycling hero Pippa had transitioned when she was still competing and I had met her when I was the world's number one female road cyclist, I doubt there would have been a competition.”
She argued that “there must be fairness to both trans and biological females. They must each have their own category so each group can enjoy fair competition on an equal basis. The field in the trans group will be smaller. If the motive to compete is genuine, competing fairly without a circus of discord is surely preferable. It would allow trans athletes to enjoy sport without distraction.
“However, if a trans athlete's true motive is the desire for fame and wealth – to access a subsequent career in I'm a Celebrity, or similar – then a dark path will lie ahead.”
Cooke acknowledged that a separate transgender category would fail to offer the same financial opportunities as other categories, but argued that this is also currently the case when it comes to women’s sport.
Criticising the indecisiveness of sports administrators, Cooke concluded: “A separate category is required. The biological change required for competitive fairness in sport, between both trans athletes and women, cannot be achieved.”
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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39 comments
Just carried out an Internal Review of my previous opinion, and have concluded that Nicole Cooke is still right. A ban from competing against XX females is a minor part of the difficulties faced by trans females.
PM has spoken !
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/61012030
Runs away from thread.
Haha! Hirsute you shit stirrer! 😂
One of my favourite Champions. Who fought the naysayers and achieved it all through her own individual grit, hard work and determination.
Thank you for your common sense.
When will the UCI use it's own common sense?
The thing is, that article is almost completely evidence free. It makes the general point that testosterone is considered a performance enhancer (how much, how long?), then falls back on opinion ('common sense').
As much as I admire Nicole Cooke for her athletic achievements, and her general willingness to speak out, this adds nothing.
(Also, his name was Fignon).
Do you perhaps mean '...leading to the delay...'?
Nicole Cooke is a great athlete- her opinion carries a lot of weight even if it is published in the hyper-junk press. I agree with her.
Careful now... you will get labelled transphobic any minute now...
Only if you make transphobic statements though? (I didn't think the word was the best coinage I'd seen - cf. anti-semitic, racist - but guess it follows the pattern of "homophobic", "xenophobic" etc).
I think for the UK some definitions in law are here - apologies this is just an "instant google" so there are probably clearer versions - a more "readable" list is e.g. here.
Some of this is fairly new (sentencing act 2020) and is still being debated culturally as well as legally, as we see here. I had considered this whole subject much less than I thought, despite knowing some trans people. So it's all been a school day for me.
Thinking about this (dangerous) maybe it's a bit like:
It'd almost certainly be useful to have a calm debate with someone who mostly drives about how we design, allocate and police our road infrastructure. It's quite possible people would be able to agree on many points. For example that although the current system "works" for driver (the "majority") it is risky, unpleasant and inconvenient for others. After some trust-building and awareness-raising I think most people would see it would benefit everyone (including those driving) if we paid more attention to transport modes other than e.g. private car. We might broaden our viewpoints beyond just categories of drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to understand different transport needs and capabilities e.g. children and people looking after them, people with disabilities, with visual impairments, people with hearing issues etc.
But when you feel someone is about to run you over that discussion won't happen - shouting is more likely. You might even struggle if someone is just talking about getting non-motorists "off the roads" - you probably just feel threatened or that there's no point in discussion at that moment. It's also easier to dump people into handy categories and ignore that people are complex and can change over time ("ex-nazi" / "former liberal").
why? Nothing transphobic there.
callingbthe daily mail "hyper junk" is a little generous however.
I think separate categories for now whilst evidence is collected would not be a bad idea.
We can then compare performances against expected levels to gauge how the current rules are performing in terms of fair competition.
Eg a man who was ranked 500th in a particular event should, if current rules are working correctly, achieve a similar ranking in the event after transitioning to a woman and competing in the women's event.
If they suddenly jumped to being ranked in the top 10 then the rules would likely not be working as intended.
You'd obviously need more data points than just one to draw conclusions.
I lean this way myself if only because this argument is a distraction from and undermines Trans rights in general.
Now I know a lot of trans absolutists would be massively offended but they need to focus on the big wins not little ones that only impact half a dozen here and there.
Shame she chose the Heil though - massively undermines what seems to be a reasonable argument.
indeed x writing for a well known hate spewing rag doesn't help your argument.
It seems like there is a chance to actually think about the historic splits in sport and why we have them, as opposed to creating a third category which says, to one of the most discriminated against groups around, yiure not actually equal.
But there you are at risk of absolutism. Lets not pretend (as you are doing) that non-equality in Competitive "professional" sports is the same as non-equality in society.
IMO opinion trying to fight all your battles at once risks losing the ones that really matter, and ultimately this one doesnt matter - it will be a footnote in history.
it is however hugely visible, and as a generally tribal species being able to see people you can relate to, doing well (or at least, being accepted), is hugely important. This is where sports can play a big role having been a pretty toxic place in the past as regards sexuality, an area in which it is only slightly improving.
the bigots in the us kniw this well, hence why they're banning speech in a similar way to the uk old section 28.
What you said.
"Writing in the Daily Mail..."
Not sure why anyone trying to be taken seriously in their views would write for that rag.
Define prejudice.
I'd argue that dismissing Daily Mail writings is based on sufficient knowledge and just grounds.
Of course you would, because what she's written doesn't fit in with the narrative being pushed here that there's no performance advantages held by trans athletes.
Nicole has trained with top male athletes and knows full well the advantages they have over female athletes.
One thing I do notice is there's no talk of trans males and their participation in male sports at the highest level. I wonder why that is...
I can't remember the details but someone did supply a link to an article with various sportspeople (lots of categories covered) over on a very long recent thread if that helps?
Anything as prominent as this story or that of Lia Thomas?
Repost the link here if you can please.
As requested - found the link on the other thread:
https://www.healthline.com/health/fitness/transgender-athletes-to-watch
I counted 3 trans men and it sounded like at least one of them transitioned to male whilst still playing on a female team.
We are clutching at straws a bit here.
You've presumed wrong - I haven't even read what she's written as I'm not invested in the topic either way.
I do know that the Daily Mail is always pushing an agenda of fear, hate and divisiveness, though.
So you haven't taken the time to read it? You've used some kind of prejudicial assumption that it won't contain anything worth knowing?
I've read enough tripe from the Daily Mail to not ever click on their links again. It's definitely from experience.
(I'd be unlikely to read sports-peoples opinions posted elsewhere as well, but that's just me)
Sports-peoples opinions in general or just on the subject of trans athletes?
In general.
I've got an exception for Saint Chris though.
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