She had originally been allowed to register. Eventually, Emily Bridges will not be able to participate in the British National Championships d’all’, Saturday in Derby. The cyclist transgender was declared ineligible on Wednesday by the international cycling union (UCI). British Cycling, in charge of the national championships, revealed in a statement, as it first allowed Bridges to line up as part of its transgender and non-binary participation policy.
According to the information from the British newspaper The Guardian, Emily Bridges, who started hormone treatment last year, must wait until her UCI registration as a male rider expires before she can compete as a woman. British Cycling’s regulations, updated in January 2022, meanwhile require riders to demonstrate low testosterone levels for twelve months prior to competition.
Lives controversial
The initial decision to allow Bridges to compete this weekend had sparked controversy, with fellow sportswomen threatening to boycott the race. “It wouldn’t have been fair to ask Laura Kenny [quintuple championne olympique sur piste] and the other runners Bridges would have faced having to race against a rival with the advantages of a biological male,” former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies told The Times on Thursday, adding that “no reduction in testosterone couldn’t mitigate that.”
About ten days ago, the president of World Athletics Sebastian Coe had expressed in the same newspaper his fear of seeing women’s sport weakened by the participation of transgender sportswomen. “We really have to trust science as much as possible,” said Coe, for whom “there is no doubt that [le taux de] testosterone is the key determinant of performance”.
Her statement echoed the performance achieved a few days earlier by Lia Thomas, the first transgender swimmer to win a university title, with more than a second ahead of her first pursuer. This victory had created a strong controversy in the United States.